Methamphetamines and Acetabular Reoperation Rates: Poor Outcomes From the Front Lines

Abstract

Objectives: To compare acetabular fracture reoperation rates within 1 year of surgery in methamphetamine ("meth") abusers and abstainers.

Design: Retrospective database analysis.

Setting: Level 1 academic trauma facility, 2008-2018.

Patients/participants: Three hundred seventy-one patients who underwent unilateral traumatic acetabular open reduction internal fixation during the study period, 36 of whom abused methamphetamines through self-report or toxicology. One hundred four were excluded for indeterminate abuse histories.

Intervention: Open reduction internal fixation.

Main outcome measurements: Reoperation resulting from major surgical complications, including hematoma, seroma, deep wound infection, failure of fixation, or arthrosis with conversion to arthroplasty.

Results: More than 10% of our cohort used meth, representing patients who were a mean 8 years younger and sustained a higher rate of high-energy mechanisms than sober peers. Meth abusers had a greater than 2-fold reoperation rate at 90 days and 1 year compared with abstainers (17% vs. 7% and 25% vs. 11%, respectively). The adjusted odds ratio of 1-year reoperation in meth users was 3.2 (confidence interval 1.2-8.5, P = 0.03). The adjusted 1-year survival of native hip after acetabular fractures in meth users approaches 55%.

Conclusions: Methamphetamine use is a nonmodifiable factor associated with a 3-fold increase in adjusted odds for 1-year reoperation after surgical fixation of acetabular fractures.

Level of evidence: Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.