Microbiological Culture Findings of the Femoral Heads as a Prognostic Factor in the Total Hip Replacement Surgery

BACKGROUND: In primary total hip replacements (THRs), the dissected femoral heads (FHs) are commonly used to make the bone-chips for the reconstruction in the orthopaedic surgery. The donated FHs are routinely microbiologically cultured to identify and contaminated FHs are discarded. This study examines whether a positive FH culture predicts an infection and prosthetic failure after primary THR. METHODS: The study sampled 274 donated FHs from patients with osteonecrosis (ON), hip joint osteoarthritis (OA), and femoral neck fracture (FNF) in THR to culture the microbes. The FH contamination rates were analyzed for ON, OA, and FNF groups. Proportion of the postoperative infection or prosthetic failure in the group of donors with a positive FH culture were compared to the proportion in the group of donors with a negative FH culture. RESULTS: The rates of the positive culture in the ON, OA, and FNF groups were 7.1%, 3.8%, and 4.0%, respectively. The infection rate was found to be non-significantly greater in the ON group than in the OA and FNF groups. In the negative culture group, one patient (0.63%) had a postoperative superficial infection, and five patients (3.2%) experienced additional surgeries including a fixation for a periprosthetic fracture, within a minimum follow-up of two years. However, no postoperative infection was encountered, and no revision surgery was required in the positive culture group. CONCLUSIONS: A positive FH culture is not always associated with elevated risks of infection or prosthetic failure after THR. Therefore, such finding cannot be used as a prognostic factor of THR. The FHs that return a positive culture may not lead to the orthopaedic assessment of an infection or other postoperative complication risks in primary THR.

Recurrent Secondary Pneumothorax Caused by Bronchiolitis Obliterans Due to Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease in a Patient with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia after Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplantation / 결핵및호흡기질환

Bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is a nonspecific inflammatory injury affecting primarily the small airways. Its inflammatory process is characterized by fibrotic obliteration of the lumen of bronchioles. BO can be idiopathic or associated with connective tissue disease, inhaled toxins, infections, drugs, and chronic graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). Pulmonary complications occur in 40~60% of patients who undergo allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), causing 10~40% of transplant-related deaths. BO is a characteristic pulmonary complication which occurs usually within a few years after BMT. Documented complications of BO include air-leak syndromes such as pneumomediastinum, subcutaneous emphysema and pneumothorax. We report a case of a 30-year-old male patient with BO due to chronic GVHD after allogenic BMT who presented with recurrent bilateral pneumothoraces.

A Case of Hypereosinophilic Syndrome Presenting with Bilateral Pleural Effusions & Recurrent Bilateral Pneumothoraces / 결핵및호흡기질환

Idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is a disorder characterized by prolonged eosinophilia without an identifiable cause and eosinophil related tissue damage in multiple organs including heart, lung, skin, gastrointestinal tract, liver, and the nervous systems. Pulmonary involvement occurs in about 40% of HES cases, but pleural effusion due to pleuritis and bilateral pneumothoraces are very rare manifestations. We report a case of hypereosinophilic syndrome presented with bilateral pleural effusions and recurrent bilateral pneumothoraces in a 44 year-old male with brief review of the literature.