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Evaluation of the use of sonication of retrieved implants for the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection in a routine setting

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Abstract

In order to evaluate the usefulness of sonication of retrieved implants for the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) in a large group of patients in a routine setting, we designed a 3-year retrospective study. Patients were classified into two groups: those meeting the clinical criteria of PJI and those that did not (control group). Two hundred patients and 276 samples were included. The types of infection were early (n = 44), delayed (n = 53), positive intraoperative cultures (n = 13) and late-acute (n = 8). The culture sensitivities of sonicate fluid, periprosthetic tissue, synovial fluid and combination of periprosthetic tissue and/or synovial fluid were 69.5, 52.8, 54.8 and 60.2%, respectively. The specificities were 97.6, 90.3, 93.0 and 89.9%, respectively. Sonicate fluid culture of implants was more sensitive than peri-implant tissue, synovial fluid and combination of periprosthetic tissue and/or synovial fluid for all infection types, though it was especially useful in delayed infection: 91.3% vs. 60.0% (p = 0.0015), 63.2% (p = 0.0005) and 66.7% (p = 0.0001), respectively. When sonicate fluid culture of implants was performed in addition to conventional cultures, the sensitivity increased significantly in total (from 60.2 to 77.1%) and delayed PJI (from 45.1 to 71.7%). On the other hand, for early PJI, sonicate fluid culture of prosthesis was not superior to conventional diagnostic methods.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Mr. Oliver Shaw for his help with the English edition of the article.

Part of this work was communicated at the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), Copenhagen, Denmark, April 2015.

Funding

This study was funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MAT2013-48224-C2-2-R).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Microbiology, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Av. Reyes Católicos 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Laura Prieto-Borja, Ricardo Fernández-Roblas, Ignacio Gadea & Jaime Esteban

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain

    Álvaro Auñón & Raúl Parrón

  3. Department of Internal Medicine-Emergencies, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain

    Antonio Blanco & Joaquín García-Cañete

Authors
  1. Laura Prieto-Borja
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  2. Álvaro Auñón
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  3. Antonio Blanco
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  4. Ricardo Fernández-Roblas
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  5. Ignacio Gadea
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  6. Joaquín García-Cañete
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  8. Jaime Esteban
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Correspondence to Jaime Esteban.

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No conflict of interest for any of the authors regarding this study.

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Prieto-Borja, L., Auñón, Á., Blanco, A. et al. Evaluation of the use of sonication of retrieved implants for the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection in a routine setting. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 37, 715–722 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-017-3164-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-017-3164-8

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