The Effect of Povidone-Iodine Lavage in Preventing Infection After Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasties: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dilute povidone-iodine (PI) lavage, a simple disinfection method, could reduce postoperative infection risk. However, there is no clinical consensus regarding its efficacy in total joint arthroplasties (TJAs). This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated PI lavage’s efficacy in preventing infection after TJA.

MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched for studies published before November 22, 2019, that compared postoperative infection rates in patients who underwent TJA with or without PI lavage before wound closure. Subgroup analyses were designed to identify the differences in infection site (overall or deep), type of surgery (total hip arthroplasty or total knee arthroplasty), time until diagnosis of infection (3 or 12 months postoperatively), and primary/aseptic revision arthroplasties.

We included 7 studies with 31,213 TJA cases, comprising 8861 patients who received PI lavage and 22,352 who did not. Pooled odds ratio for overall infection rate for the PI and non-PI lavage groups was 0.67 (95% confidence interval, 0.38-1.19, P = .17) and for the deep infection rate was 0.90 (95% confidence interval, 0.27-2.98, P = .86). Subgroup analyses revealed no differences in postoperative infection rates between the PI and non-PI lavage groups in terms of total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty, diagnosis of infection at 3 and 12 months postoperatively, or primary and aseptic revision arthroplasties.

We detected no differences in the overall postoperative infection rates between the PI and non-PI lavage groups before wound closure in TJA including all studies in the subgroup analyses.