Outcome following deep wound contamination in cemented arthroplasty

Infection remains a devastating complication of joint replacement surgery causing a significant burden to both patient and surgeon. However, despite exhaustive prophylactic measures, intraoperative contamination still occurs during cemented arthroplasty with current infection rates of 1–2%. A study was undertaken to determine the incidence of perioperative contamination in cemented arthroplasty patients, to identify contaminating organisms, to identify contaminated regions within the operative wound, to identify factors associated with increased contamination, and finally to assess the medium-term clinical outcome in patients with confirmed intraoperative wound contamination. Eighty consecutive patients undergoing hip and knee cemented arthroplasty were prospectively enrolled over a 6-month period. All scrubbed personnel wore total body exhaust isolation suits and procedures were carried out in ultra-clean air theatres. Of 441 samples, contamination was identified at 21 sites (4.8%) representing a cohort of 18 patients (22.5%). Longer duration of surgery predisposed to higher contamination rates while lower contamination rates were significantly related to fewer gowned personnel within the ultra-clean system, and fewer total personnel in theatre during the procedure. None of the patients developed clinical evidence of deep prosthetic infection at follow-up. We noted a high incidence of intraoperative contamination despite standard prophylaxis. However, this was not reflected by a similar rate of postoperative infection. This may be due to a small bacterial inoculum in each case or may be due to the therapeutic effect of perioperative intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis.