Seasonal Temperature and Pin Site Care Regimen Affect the Incidence of Pin Site Infection in Pediatric Supracondylar Humeral Fractures

Abstract EN

Pin site infection is a common complication after fracture fixation and bone lengthening, and daily pin site care is recommended.

Weather is a strong environmental factor of infection, but few articles studied the issue of weather and pin site infection.

We performed a prospective comparative study of 61 children with supracondylar humeral fractures treated by closed reduction and percutaneous pinning.

The patients were divided into high-temperature season or low-temperature season by the months they received surgery.

The patients within each season were further allocated to 2 groups by the different postoperative pin site care methods of daily care or noncare.

The infection rate per patient was significantly higher in the high-temperature season compared to low-temperature season (45% versus 19%, P = 0.045).

In the high-temperature season, the infection rate per patient was significantly higher in the daily care group versus the noncare group (70% versus 20%, P = 0.001).

In the low-temperature season, the infection rate per patient was not significantly different in the daily care group versus the noncare group (10% versus 27.3%, P = 0.33).

We recommend that careful monitoring of infection signs, rather than pin site cleaning, would be appropriate in the treatment of pediatric supracondylar humeral fractures, especially during the summer months.