Timing of hip hemiarthroplasty and the influence on prosthetic joint infection

INTRODUCTION: Previous research suggested that patients have increased risk of infection with increased time from presentation with a femoral neck fracture to treatment with a hip hemiarthroplasty (HHA). The purpose of this study was to determine if rates of prosthetic joint infections within 3 months of surgery was affected by the time from patient presentation with a femoral neck fracture to the time of treatment with HHA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Acute hip fractures treated with HHA between 2005 and 2017 at three centres in Norway were enrolled in the study. Multi-trauma patients were excluded. Univariable analysis was performed to determine any significant effect of pre-operative waiting time on infection rate. Two pre-planned analyses dichotomizing pre-operative waiting time cut-offs were performed. RESULTS: There were 2300 patients with an average age of 82 (range, 48–100) years included of which 3.4% experienced a prosthetic joint infection within 3 months. The primary analysis found no significant difference in infection rate depending on time to surgery (OR = 1.06 (95% CI 0.94–1.20, p = 0.33)). The secondary analyses showed no significant differences in infection rates when comparing pre-operative waiting time of <24 hours vs ≥24 hours (OR = 0.92 (95% CI 0.58–1.46, p = 0.73)) and <48 hours vs ≥48 hours (OR = 1.39 (95% CI 0.81–2.38, p = 0.23)). CONCLUSION: Based off of a large retrospective Norwegian database of hip fractures there did not appear to be a significant difference in infection rate based on pre-operative wait time to surgery.