Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jun 18, 2019; 10(6): 255-261
Published online Jun 18, 2019. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v10.i6.255
Recurrent surgical site infection after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: A case report
Don Koh, Shi Ming Tan, Andrew Hwee Chye Tan
Don Koh, Shi Ming Tan, Andrew Tan, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore 169856, Singapore
Author contributions: Koh D, Tan SM and Tan AHC designed, performed the research; analyzed the data; Koh D wrote the paper.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no financial interest to report.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Don Koh, BSc, MBBS, Doctor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, 20 College Road, Academia Building Level 4, Singapore 169865, Singapore. don.koh@mohh.com.sg
Telephone: +65-62223322 Fax: +65-62248100
Received: February 2, 2019
Peer-review started: February 11, 2019
First decision: April 15, 2019
Revised: May 7, 2019
Accepted: May 21, 2019
Article in press: May 22, 2019
Published online: June 18, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Chronic surgical site infections following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions are rare. Most infections occur in the acute or subacute post-operative periods. Astute clinic judgement and patient involvement are key when managing recurrent infections post-ACL reconstruction. Early intervention involving joint washout and debridement as well as commencing culture-directed antibiotic therapy are key. The decision for graft-sparing versus graft-sacrificing surgery remains controversial.