Studies have suggested that the success of 2-stage revision total knee arthroplasty (rTKA) may be compromised by a prior failed irrigation and debridement (I&D). The purpose of this study was to use 2 large state inpatient databases to compare the 2-stage rTKA failure rates for those patients with and without a prior I&D.
This retrospective, longitudinal study used inpatient discharge data from the State Inpatient Database of 2 states (California and New York) from 2005 to 2011. A combination of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, diagnosis and procedure codes was used to identify rTKA patients and compare failure rates for rTKA patients with and without prior I&D. The primary outcome was failure of the staged revision, which was defined as subsequent surgery due to infection within 4 years of the 2-stage rTKA.
Of the 750 patients who underwent 2-stage rTKA, 57 had undergone a prior I&D. In all, 126 patients failed rTKA. After 4 years, the estimated failure rate was 8.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9%-16.9%) in the group with prior I&D and 17.5% (95% CI, 14.7%-20.4%) in the group without prior I&D. After adjusting for sex, race, insurance, median household income, and comorbidities, the hazard ratio for the group with a failed I&D was 0.49 (P = .122; 95% CI, 0.20-1.20), which indicated a lower risk of failure compared to the group without prior I&D.
These findings indicate that the failure rate of 2-stage rTKA is not increased by prior failed I&D.