Abstract
Although single-stage revision has attracted a lot of attention due to less socioeconomic cost, this technique is not widely used throughout the world due to strict indications. In this situation, we report our outcome on single-stage revision combined with selective direct intra-articular antibiotic infusion for chronic infected THA, especially for patients with culture-negative hip, fungal infections and multidrug-resistant organism.
We retrospectively reviewed 131 patients with chronic infected THA between January 2010 and February 2017 who underwent single-stage revision, including soakage of surgical area with 0.5% aqueous betadine, pouring powdered vancomycin or imipenem into the medullary cavity. For patients with culture-negative hip, fungal infections and multidrug-resistant organism, a direct intra-articular infusion of pathogens-sensitive antibiotics via three-branch catheter were performed postoperatively. Recurrence of infection and clinical outcomes were evaluated.
One hundred and fifteen patients were followed-up for an average of 4.5 years (range, 1.2–8 years). Of the 115 patients, 103 patients (89.6%) required no additional surgical or medical treatment for recurrence of infection. A recurrent infection was observed in 4 of the 23 patients (17.4%) with culture-negative infected hip. One of 4 fungal infections was relapse and the success rate in patients with multidrug-resistant organism was 84.2% (16/19). The mean postoperative Harris hip score was 81 points (63 to 92; p < 0.05) at the most recent assessment.
Treatment of chronic infected THA by single-stage revision combined with selective direct intra-articular antibiotic infusion can be fairly effective, even for patients with relative “contraindication” of this approach.