Final surgical interventions in primary total knee arthroplasty infections : a retrospective

Abstract

Conclusions: Two stage revision is largely regard as the gold standard for treatment of chronic PJI in primary TKA. Follow-up for these patients who continue to be at risk for infection related failure over an extended period of time frequently did not return to the institution where their infection management was started. Our retrospective study identified that subset (23.8%) of those undergoing two-stage intervention and who had returned for follow-up were never reimplanted. Only half of those reimplanted retain those components over a 31 month follow up from the time of their initial intervention. These results give a more guarded prognosis for the outcome of patients with prosthetic joint replacement than what has been traditionally reported in the literature. The more challenging prognosis may be impacted by host comorbidities, antibiotic susceptibility of infecting organisms, timing to surgical treatment, or other factors.