Dr. James Gladstone talks about Rob Gronkowski’s infection

Rob Gronkowski’s latest surgery: Infections are mostly fluky, and Gronk’s partying likely had nothing to do with it.

Gronkowski reportedly had a third surgery on his broken forearm last week, this time for an infection. It’s not expected to affect his recovery time.

If that is indeed the case, Dr. Ben Wedro, who practices emergency medicine at Gundersen Clinic in Wisconsin, said the infection isn’t a huge deal. If it were serious, Gronkowski would have required a longer hospital stay, which would have meant the bone or metal plate were compromised.

“If it was just going in and he had an infection of the wound, that’s not a big deal, and I presume that’s what happened,” Wedro said. “When you have hardware in you, with screws and plates and things, the big worry is does the hardware get infected and bacteria sort of invade the crevasses of the plate and the screws. Then that’s a big deal because you have to take everything out and start all over again.”

So, why do infections happen?

“There are hundreds of reasons of why it could get infected, but I think the bottom line is it happens,” said Dr. James Gladstone, who is an orthopedic surgeon and co-chief of sports medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “The important thing is to recognize it, and 99.9 percent of the time, you can clean it up and it won’t affect the outcome whatsoever.”

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