Multiple Cultures and Extended Incubation for Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Revision: Impact on Clinical Care

The impact on patient care of introducing a protocol of obtaining 5 or more intra-operative separate tissue biopsies that were cultured for 10 days was assessed for hip and knee arthroplasty revision. The charts of seventy-three patients undergoing 77 cases of revision arthroplasty were reviewed one year post-operatively. When compared to the prior standard of obtaining only one intra-operative culture, the protocol changed the microbiological diagnosis in 26/77 cases (34%, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 23–45%) and antibiotic treatment in 23/77 cases (30%, 95% CI: 20–41%). In addition, the protocol had a predictive value of joint sterility in culture negative cases of 95% (95% CI: 85–99%). This data demonstrated the new protocol significantly changed patient care, and suggests that 1 or 2 cultures are insufficient. Adopting a similar protocol should be considered by surgeons and institutions as a new minimum standard for management of prosthetic joint infections.