Prevention of deep infection in joint replacement surgery

The incidence of deep infection has declined since the early years of joint replacement surgery (Figure 1). Currently, the infection rates are low: around 1% in primary knee replacements and 0.3–0.6% in hip replacements (Phillips et al. 2006, Pulido et al. 2008, Jämsen et al. 2010). However, even prospective surveillance programs may underestimate the infection rates; thus, the true incidence is probably higher (Huotari et al. 2010).