Identification and treatment of infected total hip arthroplasty

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) in the hip following prosthetic joint placement is a devastating outcome of an otherwise often successful surgical treatment (total-hip arthroplasty). Management of PJI is dependent upon accurate diagnosis and successful treatment, both of which are challenging. Recently, great strides have been made in improving the diagnosis of PJI, which has no 'gold standard' diagnostic tool. Proper diagnosis is essential as untreated or undetected PJI can quickly lead to biofilm formation on the implant surface depending upon the infecting organism. Upon complete biofilm formation, successful treatment requires prosthetic resection with immediate or delayed reimplantation. Even with the most aggressive surgical treatment, PJI eradication currently has a success rate of approximately 80%. Unfortunately, technologies to improve the local delivery of antibiotics are not expected to be available in the near future.