The Clinical Outcome of Management of Periprosthetic Infection in Total Knee Replacement

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Infection is a severe complication after total knee replacement (TKR) and creates great disability. We reviewed our 11-year experience in the management of TKR infection and its outcome. Methods: Patients who had TKR infection from 2001 to 2011 in our hospital were reviewed retrospectively. Results: A total of 727 TKRs were performed from 2001 to 2011 and 12 cases of post-TKR infection were identified (1.65%). In the acute group, two patients had debridement with exchange of liner and four patients had a two-stage operation. No re-infection was noted. For the chronic presentation group, four out of six patients had a two-stage operation and none of them suffered from re-infection. The remaining two patients had debridement and exchange of liner and both had re-infection with a two-stage operation performed afterwards. One patient had no re-infection thereafter. Another patient was on long-term suppressive antibiotics because of the failure to eradicate the infection. Conclusion: The incidence of TKR infection in our hospital is comparable to the reported incidence in the literature. This study also showed that a two-stage operation has a higher success rate in the management of chronic TKR infection.

Keywords

• infection
• outcome
• total knee replacement