Abstract
Aim
The incidence of early periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is between 1 and 2 percent. In our department approximately 700 primary THAs and TKAs are performed annually. In 2015 and 2016 the incidence of early PJIs was nearly 3%. The aim of this study was to see if it was possible to reduce the incidence of infection by employing a bundle of measures by involving staff from all aspects of patient flow and addressing preventing measures in every step of the patients´ course throughout the hospital.
Method
The Arthroplasty surgeon team reviewed the Proceedings of the International Consensus Meeting on Periprosthetic Joint Infection of 2013. Issues where literature had shown a significant effect on prevention of PJI was identified and written in an action plan. An interdisciplinary team with staff from all aspects of patient flow was established. In January 2017 the action plan was presented to the interdisciplinary team. The team discussed in what way the different issues could be solved, and issues that could be addressed without extra costs were implemented immediately. The issues addressed in the meeting were: preoperative risk factors, preoperative skin preparation, perioperative antibiotics, reducing particle amount and reducing traffic in the surgical theatre.
Results
Early PJIs (symptoms within 30 days of index surgery) has been registered in our local quality register since 2011. Every infection is assured in order to apply to international criteria. There were 31 early PJIs among the 1100 primary THAs and TKAs performed before the intervention and 13 early PJIs among the 1100 after. The incidence the last two years before the intervention was 2.7% and the two years after intervention incidence was 1.2% (p=0.009).
Conclusions
In this study we have shown that it is possible to reduce the incidence of early periprosthetic infections after primary THA and TKA in a university hospital. The patients referred to our department are of all categories, from healthy to great comorbidity. By focusing on optimizing the patient, preoperative antibiotics and traffic and behavior in the surgical theatre, we were able to reduce the infection incidence significantly. It is important to address the whole patient course, and introduce bundle of measures, in addition to involving staff from all aspects of the patient flow.
