Risk factors of infection after skin soft tissue expansion / 中华整形外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#The incidence of complications after skin soft tissue expansion is relatively high. Occurrence of infection often means the expander has to be taken out ahead of schedule. In this retrospective study, we wanted to identify independent risk factors of infection after skin soft tissue expansion, which could be helpful to guide clinical work.@*Methods@#Demographic information of patients who underwent the skin soft tissue expansion at the department of plastic surgery of Xijing Hospital from January 2003 to December 2012 was collected. Univariate associations with infection were measured by logistic regression and represented as odds ratios. The p-value less than 0.1 was identified the potential risk factor. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios for risk factors of infection. Independent risk factors were identified if the p-value was less than 0.05.@*Results@#A total of 3382 implants were included in the study. The overall infection rate of tissue expansion was 5.2% in 177 implants. The result of multivariate logistic regression showed that preoperative white blood cell count, age, numbers of expander implanted and volume of expander were independent risk factors of infection.@*Conclusions@#Independent risk factors of infection were preoperative white blood cell count, age, numbers of expander implanted and volume of expander. The lower preoperative white blood cell count, age more than 18 years old, more numbers of expander implanted and the bigger volume of the expander, the higher possibility of complications occurred. The result was helpful to guide clinical work and reduce the incidence of infection.