Does Adherence to Preoperative Surgical Selection Criteria Reduce the Rate of Prosthetic Joint Infection in Primary and Revision Total Knee Arthroplasties?

BACKGROUND

There has been recent increased focus on the importance of modifiable risk factors that can affect the risk of potentially avoidable complications such as prosthetic joint infection (PJI). We aimed to assess the relationship between adherence to a preoperative optimization protocol at our institution and its influence on the rate of PJI after primary and revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

METHODS

A single-institution, retrospective study was conducted on all elective primary and revision TKAs performed over a 2-year period. PJI was diagnosed using the 2011 Musculoskeletal Infection Society criteria. Surgical outcomes and PJI were assessed relative to adherence to preoperative optimization criteria. Compliance was set as a binary variable with any case that did not meet all criteria deemed noncompliant.

RESULTS

A total of 669 TKAs met inclusion criteria, including 510 primary and 159 revision TKAs. Overall compliance was 61.3%. There were 26 PJIs (3.9%) in total. The PJI rate was 1.2% (6) among primary and 14.4% (20) among revision TKAs. The rate of PJI among cases that met the preoperative optimization criteria was 2.4% (5), and the rate among cases that did not was 6.2% (21) ( < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Adherence to preoperative optimization criteria may decrease the incidence of PJI after primary and revision TKA, but further study is needed to confirm the findings of this study.