In the past year, we've talked a little about unusual chronic infections, mostly undiagnosed conditions that patients may have prior to surgery.

In the coming years, I hope to work with medical professionals to better understand, diagnose, and control these tricky conditions (identifying screening & pre-qualifying criteria) for ADR patients. The abstract below is case in point!

In the meantime, I suppose the take-away here is to ensure your absolute best health before undergoing any surgery. That may sound obvious; but as we've seen and read -- it's not. http://adrsupport.org/groupee_common...icon_frown.gif
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Ehrlichiosis as a Near-Fatal Cause of Postoperative Fever After Bilateral Total Knee Arthroplasty

By Scott J. Tarantino, MD; Adrian J. Thomas, MD; Robert F. Spiera, MD; Thomas P. Sculco, MD
J Knee Surg. 2006; 19:273

October 2006
EXCERPT

INTRODUCTION
Postoperative fever is common in orthopedic patients and usually is caused by atelectasis, urinary tract infection, or wound hematoma. Less commonly, fever is caused by wound infection (superficial or deep), blood transfusion, deep vein thrombosis, or medication reaction.
This article presents a patient with a fever after bilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) who was infected with human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, which proved to be nearly fatal.

Although previous instances of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in postsurgical patients have been reported, these cases have not been reported in the orthopedic literature or as a cause of acute fever in postoperative patients.

AUTHORS

Dr Tarantino is from Orthopaedic Associates, PA, Baltimore, Md; Drs Thomas and Sculco are from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY; and Dr Spiera is from Beth Israel Medical Center, New York Bone and Joint, New York, NY.

Reprint requests: Thomas P. Sculco, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 E 70th St, New York, NY 10021.

Source & Courtesy of:

http://www.orthosupersite.com/defaul...view&rid=18852

A timely posting Harrison, how often we forget about those microscopic bacteria, which can actually destroy all the skilled surgery that the surgeon has done.

It must inspire everybody to be 101% fit prior to surgery and to get their body resistance up to maximum.
Best,
Alastair http://adrsupport.org/groupee_common...icon_smile.gif