Increased perioperative C-reactive protein and decreased postoperative albumin is associated with acute posttraumatic osteomyelitis in patients with high-energy tibial fractures

Early diagnosis of acute posttraumatic osteomyelitis (POM) is of vital importance for avoiding devastating complications. Diagnosing POM is difficult due to the lack of a highly specific and sensitive test, such as in myocardial infarct, stroke and intracranial bleeding. Serum inflammatory markers, C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), white blood cells (WBC) can support clinical findings but they are not able to differentiate between inflammatory response to infection and the host response to non-infection insult with high specificity and sensitivity.
Source: Injury - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Source Type: research