Risk Factors Associated with Surgical Site Infections Following Hip Arthroplasty Among Patients Served by a Large...

Surgical site infections (SSIs), including prosthetic joint infections (PJI), are one of the many complications that can occur after total hip arthroplasty. In this report we examined risk factors associated with SSI following hip arthroplasties among patients in a 10-hospital safety network in New York City.

Data was obtained from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) on patients who underwent hip arthroplasty between 2015 and 2023. Surgical site infections were defined per NHSN criteria. Propensity score matching using NHSN risk adjustment variables was used to create a closely matched control group.

Over the 8-year period, 3679 hip arthroplasties were performed across the 10 hospitals, which resulted in 54 SSIs (1.5%). Patient with SSIs had significantly higher BMIs and ASA scores (both P<0.05). When examining the socioeconomic differences between our cases and controls, we found higher rates of infections occurred in geographical areas of higher poverty (P<.0001). Lastly, Hispanic or Black patients had higher occurrences of SSIs compared to other races (P<0.05).

Our report demonstrated the association of poverty level with SSIs following hip arthroplasty. This underscores the need for comprehensive and aggressive post-discharge programs in under resourced communities in the prevention of SSI following hip arthroplasty.