Difficult-To-Treat Periprosthetic Hip Infection: Outcomes of Debridment

Purpose of the study - to compare management efficiency for difficult-to-treat periprosthetic hip joint infection (PJI) during resection arthroplasty with grafting by vastus lateralis pedicle island flap in comparison with insertion of an antimicrobial-loaded cement spacer. Material and Methods. 132 patients were included into the retrospective study who underwent treatment from 2012 until 2018 including removal of orthopaedic implant, radical surgical debridement of infection focus, resection arthroplasty with grafting by vastus lateralis pedicle island muscle flap (PMF group - 57 patients) or insertion of antibacterial-loaded cement spacer (AMS group - 75 patients). The authors examined medical histories, nature of infection process, infection agent type, laboratory data in respect of systemic inflammation, size of bone defects, follow up status and remission of PJI in the late period. Results. 89.4% of patients (n = 51) who underwent grafting by vastus lateralis pedicle island flap had a history of 3 and more prior surgical procedures in the same area. At the same time the share of such patients in the spacer group was only 38.6% (n = 29) (p<0.0001) while the share of patients with two and more recurrences was 78.9% (n = 45) and 25.3% (n = 19), respectively (p<0.0001). No significant variances were observed between the groups in respect of type composition of PJI microbial infection agents. The infection in a vast majority of patients in both groups was caused by microbial association: 77.2% and 72.0% in PMF and AMS groups, respectively. In the early postoperative period secondary revision of surgical site was performed in 35% and 28% of cases in PMF group (n = 20) and AMS group (n = 21), respectively, including due to recurrent infection in 15.8% and 28% of cases, respectively. Stable remission of difficult-to-treat PJI in PMF group was 96.5% and 45.3% in AMS group. Conclusion. Despite some cases that required secondary revisions in early postoperative period the resection arthroplasty in combination with pedicle muscle flap can be considered a surgery of choice for management of recurrent difficult-to-treat PJI with feasible re-implantation of prosthesis against the stable remission of infection.