Is There an Association Between Hemoglobin A1C and Deep Postoperative Infection After TKA?

CONCLUSIONS: The risk of deep postoperative infection requiring surgical intervention after TKA in patients with diabetes mellitus increases as the perioperative HbA1c increases. While a threshold HbA1c level of 8.0 mg/dL was identified, it cannot by itself serve as an independent predictor of postoperative infection in patients with diabetes mellitus because its sensitivity is so low. Future studies should determine what other confounders other than an elevated HbA1c level contribute to increased infection risk and whether decreasing HbA1c levels before TKA will decrease the subsequent risk of infection after surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, diagnostic study. PMID: 28116667 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28116667?dopt=Abstract

Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - January 22, 2017 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Cancienne JM, Werner BC, Browne JA Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research