The Utility of Serum d-Dimer for the Diagnosis of Periprosthetic Joint Infection in Revision Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

There is scarce and contradicting evidence supporting the use of serum d-dimer for the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection in revision total hip (THA) and knee (TKA) arthroplasty. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to test the accuracy of serum d-dimer against the 2013 International Consensus Meeting (ICM) criteria.

A retrospective review was performed on a consecutive series of 172 revision THA/TKA surgeries performed by 3 fellowship-trained surgeons at a single institution (August 2017 to May 2019) and that had d-dimer performed during their preoperative workup. Of this cohort, 111 (42 THAs/69 TKAs) cases had complete 2013 ICM criteria tests and were included in the final analysis. Septic and aseptic revisions were categorized per 2013 ICM criteria (“gold standard”) and compared against serum d-dimer using an established threshold (850 ng/mL). Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and positive/negative predictive values were determined. Independent t-tests, Fisher’s exact tests, chi-squared tests, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were performed.

There was no statistically significant difference in baseline demographics between septic and aseptic cases per 2013 ICM criteria. When compared to ICM criteria, d-dimer demonstrated high sensitivity (95.9%) and negative predictive value (90.9%) but low specificity (32.3%), positive predictive value (52.8%), and overall, poor accuracy (61%) to diagnose periprosthetic joint infection. Positive likelihood ratio was 1.42 while negative likelihood ratio was 0.13. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.742.

Serum d-dimer has poor accuracy to discriminate between septic and aseptic cases using a described threshold in the setting of revision THA and TKA.