Significance of sentinel infective events in haematogenous prosthetic knee infections

Abstract

Background: Infection after primary knee arthroplasty is devastating. The aim of this study was to determine the significance of sentinel infective events prior to the development of haematogenous prosthetic knee infection. Methods: A retrospective single-centre case control study of 1641 primary knee arthroplasties was conducted between 1998 and 2006. Seventeen haematogenous prosthesis infections were identified and were matched with 51 controls. Perioperative data were collected prospectively, and co-morbidities, infection parameters and sentinel events were collected from patient files and questionnaires. Analysis was performed between controls and the 17 haematogenous infections. Results..