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.