Abstract
Postoperative fever after orthopaedic surgery is a controversial clinical problem in daily practice since damaged tissue due to surgical intervention can induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines responsible for systemic inflammatory response syndrome. No current diagnostic marker is able to differentiate accurately infectious from noninfectious fever in a patient who underwent orthopaedic surgery, but early diagnosis of postoperative orthopaedic infections is important in order to rapidly confirm diagnosis, thus initiating adequate therapy. The review of clinical trials on fever did not establish the parameters having higher diagnostic accuracy. Blood cultures, white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein have low specificity. Procalcitonin and IL-6 can be helpful diagnostic markers supporting clinical findings.
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Ascione, T., Balato, G., Pagliano, P. (2015). Perspectives: How to Deal with Fever (38 °C) After Arthroplasty: The Infectivologist’s Point of View. In: Baldini, A., Caldora, P. (eds) Perioperative Medical Management for Total Joint Arthroplasty. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07203-6_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07203-6_24
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