CORR Insights^®: False-positive Cultures After Native Knee Aspiration: True or False

Excerpt

Clinicians often debate the best ways to confirm a joint infection. The consequences of a delayed or missed infection diagnosis are substantial. Timeliness of diagnosis in patients with prosthetic knee joints may be the difference between treatment with a single operation and a staged revision, or on rare occasions, an above-the-knee amputation [2]. In an attempt to clarify the diagnostic process, the Musculoskeletal Infection Society recently developed a consensus statement [3] addressing the definition and diagnosis of a periprosthetic joint infection (PJI). The criteria to confirm a joint infection include: Two positive cultures (on two separate samples) are a major criteria and one positive culture qualifies as a minor criteria. Other minor criteria include ESR and CRP blood tests. …