Prosthetic joint infection: A pluridisciplinary multi-center audit bridging quality of care and outcome

Care to patients with prosthetic joint infections (PJI) is provided after pluridisciplinary collaboration, in particular for complex presentations. Therefore, to carry out an audit in PJI justifies using pluridisciplinary criteria. We report an audit for hip or knee PJI, with emphasis on care homogeneity, length of hospital stay (LOS) and mortality.

Fifteen criteria were chosen for quality of care: 5 diagnostic tools, 5 therapeutic aspects, and 5 pluridisciplinary criteria. Among these, 6 were chosen: surgical bacterial samples, surgical strategy, pluridisciplinary discussion, antibiotic treatment, monitoring of antibiotic toxicity, and prevention of thrombosis. They were scored on a scale to 20 points. We included PJI diagnosed between 2010 and 2012 from 6 different hospitals. PJI were defined as complex in case of severe comorbid conditions or multi-drug resistant bacteria, or the need for more than 1 surgery.

Eighty-two PJI were included, 70 of which were complex (85%); the median score was 15, with a significant difference among hospitals: from 9 to 17.5 points, P < 0.001. The median LOS was 17 days, and not related to the criterion score; 16% of the patients required intensive care and 13% died. The cure rate was 41%, lost to follow-up 33%, and therapeutic failure 13%. Cure was associated with a higher score than an unfavorable outcome in the univariate analysis (median [range]): 16 [9-18] vs 13 [4-18], P = 0.002.

Care to patients with PJI was heterogeneous, our quality criteria being correlated to the outcome.