Infection-related withdrawal or reoperation rate

Method

Proportion of treated patients removed from the assigned treatment, or returned to theatre for a further operative procedure, with infection recorded as the indication, counted per patient over the stated follow-up window.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

A consequence endpoint: it counts infections severe enough to change management. The near-miss is raw infection incidence, and PMID 41192209 makes the distinction load-bearing - the moderator-adjusted infection rate was far higher with one dermal matrix (22.8 percent versus 2.96 percent) while the infection-related reoperation rate did not differ. Treating the two as one endpoint would either invent a surgical harm that did not occur or erase a microbiological one that did. Excludes reoperation for non-infective reasons such as graft failure or contracture release.