Bottom line:  For patients undergoing orthopedic procedures, there is some evidence suggesting an association between perioperative HbA1c levels and complications involvoing the surgical site.

PubMed search:  (orthopedic procedures OR orthopedic surgery) AND (hemoglobin A1c OR hba1c)
The following references from the search results provided data on HbA1c in patients undergoing orthopedic procedures.

Jamsen (2010):  prospective cohort study of 1565 elective knee surgeries for which preoperative plasma glucose was recorded. Patients followed 20 months.  Mean HbA1c

Younger (2009):  Case-control study matching 21 patients with failed transmetatarsal amputation (TMA) with 21 successful TMAs.  HbA1c was the factor most closely associated with success of the TMA.

Marchant (2009):  Retrospective study of >1 million patients undergoing joint replacement surgery 1988-2005 as recorded in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.  Patients with controlled diabetes mellitus (determined by combination of patient-measured blood glucose and HbA1c) had increased risk of  wound infection (adjusted odds ratio = 2.28 compared to patients with controlled diabetes mellitus.

Lamloum (2009):  Retrospective study of 318 consecutive diabetic patients undergoing surgery at an orthopedic hospital.   Table 3 compares rates of surgical site infections (SSI) for patients with HbA1c < 7.0 compared to rate for patients with HbA1c ≥ 7.0.  High HbA1c was associated with higher rate of SSI

Reviewed by John Nemeth 4/14