Pin site infections vary in severity and there is no uniformly accepted definition of infection. Clinicians should be aware of the distinctions between the normal healing process and the signs of pin site infection (Holmes et al2005).
Classification systems have been developed to grade the level of pin site infection. These include the Saleh and Scott Classification System (Holmes et al2005). This works by grading infections from 0 to 6, where grade 0 represents no problems and grade 6 indicates chronic osteomyelitis. Grades 1 to 5 determine how the infection reacts to treatment such as oral or intravenous antibiotics, removal of pins and surgical curettage. The Checketts-Otterburns Grading System (Checketts 2000) grades infections from 1 to 6, where 1 represents slight redness/little discharge and 6 represents the presence of infection after removal of the fixator. Ward (1998) provided a simple classification