INFECTION AFTER TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY.

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) after total knee replacement (TKR) is a devastating complication. We performed a retrospective study of all consecutive TKRs performed during a two years period. Surgical site infection (SSI) was defined by standard criteria.

Method and Results All patients were examined 1 year following surgery. Of 180 patients undergoing TKR, 10 (5.6%) developed a superficial (3, 1.7%) or deep (7, 3.9%) SSI. Two independent risk factors for SSI were detected: left knees became infected more often (9/ 92, 9.8%) than right knees (1/88, 1.1%) (Relative Risk 6.7995% CI 1.726.8); and 7/72 (9.7%) patients receiving a type-1 prosthesis developed infection versus 3/104 (3.1%) receiving a type-2 prosthesis (RR 4.7, 95% CI 1.1818.4).

Conclusion: patients undergoing total knee replacement during a 2-year period and related epidemiological investigation led to detection of several distinct risk factors which, upon correction, resulted in a significant decrease in wound infection rate.

Key words: knee replacement, infection, total knee arthroplasty.