BBOT: Bacterial Burden in Ortho Trauma Procedures

April 16, 2020 updated by: Robert O'Toole, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Prospective Evaluation of Bacterial Burden in Orthopaedic Trauma Procedures Using Highly Sensitive Assays

The purpose of this research project is to improve understanding of the potential role of highly sensitive bacterial tests in diagnosing infected non-healing fractures compared to the current standard of care, microbiologic culture (growing bacteria from tissue specimens in the laboratory).

In order to understand the validity of the highly sensitive tests, parameters of the test in different groups of patients must be established. This study is examining how two highly sensitive tests compare to each other and to the standard of care (microbiologic culture) in three groups of patients.

Group 1 is clean broken bone surgery undergoing plate and screw fixation, intramedullary nailing fixation where the fracture site is accessible, or staged treatment of a broken bones initially treated by joint spanning external fixation device. Group 2 will include patients having a plate and screws removed without clinical evidence of infection. Group 3 will be patients undergoing an initial procedure for fracture nonunion.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Infected, broken bones that do not heal are a difficult clinical problem that significantly affect patient quality of life. Current methodology for detecting bacteria (growth in laboratory cultures) is inadequate to detect infections caused by bacteria existing in a biofilm, which is the layer of "slime" found in the presence of foreign bodies (eg, implanted metal devices to fix broken bones). Advances in molecular biology have allowed development of highly sensitive tests to detect bacteria in the biofilm state. However, the limited prior research has not included control groups or compared the performance of different highly sensitive tests. To address these limitations and further define the role of highly sensitive bacterial tests in clinical practice, the investigators hypothesize that there will be increasing bacterial burden when comparing clean broken bone surgery (1st surgery) to implanted metal device removal (2nd surgery, bone healed) to index nonunion surgery (subsequent surgery, bone not healed) as measured by percentage of cases being positive for bacteria using highly sensitive bacterial tests. Further, the highly sensitive bacterial tests (Illumina MiSeq system and Ibis T5000 biosensor) will have similar ability to quantify the number of bacteria and differentiate bacterial species. Eligible patients will consist of three groups. Group 1 is clean broken bone surgery undergoing plate and screw fixation, intramedullary nailing fixation where the fracture site is accessible, or staged treatment of a broken bones initially treated by joint spanning external fixation device. Group 2 will include patients having a plate and screws removed without clinical evidence of infection. Group 3 will be patients undergoing an initial procedure for fracture nonunion. Tissue obtained at the time of surgery will be sent to the research laboratory for culture and performance of the two highly sensitive tests. The tissue samples taken will be tissue normally removed and discarded in the course of these particular procedures. The rates of positivity for culture and the highly sensitive tests will be compared amongst the three groups. Investigators will also compare bacterial count and the distribution of bacterial species found using the two highly sensitive tests. These data will then undergo statistical analysis against clinical data gathered from review of the patients' charts. The overall project goal is to establish the clinical relevance of highly sensitive bacterial tests in diagnosing infected nonunions. The ability to more accurately identify patients with infection may lead to a change in clinical decision making with respect to surgical procedure or antibiotic treatment. This project will develop an improved understanding of the potential role of highly sensitive bacterial tests in diagnosing infected nonunions compared to the current standard of care, which is growing bacteria in the laboratory under artificial conditions.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

142

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21201
        • University of Maryland, Shock Trauma Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Closed fracture undergoing open reduction internal fixation, intramedullary nailing (IMN) where the fracture site is accessible, or staged treatment of a pilon or plateau that was initially treated by joint spanning external fixation.
  • Plate and screw removal without clinical evidence of infection
  • Index procedure for fracture nonunion

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Index fracture surgery for an open fracture or intramedullary nailing with fracture site not accessible
  • Hardware removal if fracture not already healed
  • Index nonunion surgery being bone grafting of a 'critical' defect
  • Pregnant females

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: DIAGNOSTIC
  • Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
OTHER: Group 1: Closed Index Fractures
Group 1 is clean, closed fractures undergoing index open reduction internal fixation (ORIF), intramedullary nailing (IMN) where the fracture site is accessible, or staged treatment of a pilon or plateau that was initially treated by joint spanning external fixation. Tissue obtained at the time of surgery will be sent to the research laboratory for culture and performance of the two highly sensitive assays.
Tissue will be collected at the time of surgery from patients in each arm of the study. In addition to tissue stored in RNAlater and sent to a research laboratory, cultures will also be sent to Quest Diagnostics for independent culture results.
Other Names:
  • Ibis T5000 biosensor
  • Illumina MiSeq system
OTHER: Group 2: Hardware Removal from Healed Fractures
Group 2 will include patients having a plate removed from a healed fracture without clinical evidence of infection and excluding history of open fracture. Tissue obtained at the time of surgery will be sent to the research laboratory for culture and performance of the two highly sensitive assays.
Tissue will be collected at the time of surgery from patients in each arm of the study. In addition to tissue stored in RNAlater and sent to a research laboratory, cultures will also be sent to Quest Diagnostics for independent culture results.
Other Names:
  • Ibis T5000 biosensor
  • Illumina MiSeq system
OTHER: Group 3: Index Treatment of Fracture Nonunions
Group 3 will be patients that are undergoing an index procedure for fracture nonunion at a site where prior surgery has been undertaken for the fracture. Exclusions include bone grafting of 'critical' defects, active clinical infection, or < 3 months from index fracture fixation. Tissue obtained at the time of surgery will be sent to the research laboratory for culture and performance of the two highly sensitive assays.
Tissue will be collected at the time of surgery from patients in each arm of the study. In addition to tissue stored in RNAlater and sent to a research laboratory, cultures will also be sent to Quest Diagnostics for independent culture results.
Other Names:
  • Ibis T5000 biosensor
  • Illumina MiSeq system

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Participants With Tissue Samples Identified With Bacterial DNA According to Highly Sensitive Bacterial Assays
Time Frame: Study surgery to 6-month clinical follow-up
The objective of this research is to see if highly sensitive bacterial assays are useful for determining whether fracture nonunions are infected
Study surgery to 6-month clinical follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

December 21, 2015

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

July 31, 2018

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

August 15, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 18, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 18, 2017

First Posted (ACTUAL)

April 24, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

April 28, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 16, 2020

Last Verified

April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HP-00066769

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Orthopaedic Trauma Infections

Clinical Trials on Highly Sensitive Assays

Search Similar Trials