The value of sonication in the differential diagnosis of septic and aseptic femoral and tibial shaft nonunion in comparison to conventional tissue culture and histopathology: a prospective multicenter clinical study

Journal of Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Official Journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Table 1 Comparison of patient characteristics between the study groups

Characteristics of the patients	Septic nonunion		Aseptic nonunion		Regular healers		p value
Characteristics of the patients	N	%	N	%	N	%	p value
Sex							0.092^a
Male	34	81	32	60	21	66
Female	8	19	21	40	11	34
Age							0.007^b
Mean ± SD [years]	45 ± 15		48 ± 15		38 ± 16
Fracture							0.003^a
Closed	20	48	28	53	27	84
Open	22	52	25	47	5	16
Bone							0.358^a
Femur	13	31	24	45	12	38
Tibia	29	69	29	55	20	63
Fracture localization							0.155^c
Proximal shaft third	4	10	4	8	6	19
Medial shaft third	14	33	29	55	12	38
Distal shaft third	22	52	17	32	14	44
Two different shaft thirds	2	5	3	6