Design Characteristics and Recruitment Rates for Randomized Trials of Peri-Prosthetic Joint Infection Management: A Systematic Review

Prosthetic joint infections (PJI) present a major management challenge for practicing orthopedic surgeons and infectious disease physicians. There are few high-quality data to inform treatment guidelines. The aim of this systematic review was to report the design characteristics and recruitment rates for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PJI management. Trials were considered eligible for inclusion if human participants were randomized to any management intervention for PJI. We searched Medline, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Database, ANZ Clinical Trials Registry, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the EU Clinical Trials Register until the end of May 2023. The systematic review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018112646). We identified 15 published RCTs with a total of 1743 participants with PJI. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) number of successfully recruited participants was 63 (38–140), with 0.28 (0.13–0.96) enrolments per site per month. Only four trials (36.4%) achieved the target recruitment. All RCTs applied different primary endpoints and varying definitions of a ‘good’ outcome. Despite recent improvements, PJI RCTs are characterized by slow recruitment and heterogeneous endpoint assessments, which preclude synthesis in a standard meta-analytic framework. To inform international guidelines, future PJI trials should be run as multi-country trials at high-recruiting sites.