Quality of life and therapeutic adherence in patients treated for an orthopedic hardware infection: A prospective observational study

Objectives

In France, hardware infections occur in 1% of patients following orthopedic surgery. The study aimed to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) and adherence to antibiotic therapy of patients with an orthopedic hardware infection in the postoperative period.

Patients and methods

A prospective observational study was conducted at Rouen University Hospital from May 2022 to May 2023. QoL was evaluated using the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and therapeutic adherence using the Girerd questionnaire. These forms were filled out by patients during routine follow-up visits at 6- and 12-week follow-up. A cohort of patients with a non-hardware infection was constituted to compare cases and controls. They were paired according to age, sex, and site of index surgery.

Results

Seventy-nine patients were enrolled as cases and 158 patients as controls. At six weeks and at 12 weeks, significant decreases were observed in 8/8 and 4/8 sub scores of SF-36, respectively (p < 0.05).

Among patients discharged to their homes, at 12 weeks, 30.4 % of patients reported high therapeutic adherence compared to 66.7 % of patients discharged to postoperative care.

Conclusion

Patients treated for postoperative hardware infections following orthopedic surgery reported a significant decrease in QoL and lower therapeutic adherence, particularly when discharged to their homes.