Fracture-related infection (FRI) is a severe complication following bone injury and can pose a diagnostic challenge. There is a spectrum of clinical presentations of FRI and differentiating them from noninfected causes can be difficult. In the early postoperative period, classical clinical symptoms of infection, such as pain, redness, warmth, or swelling, overlap with features of normal fracture healing. Later, more subtle clinical presentations such as fracture nonunion or persistent pain can be attributable to both infective and noninfective conditions. The complexity and variety of FRI may have hindered the establishment of uniform diagnostic criteria.
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