Clinical outcomes of two-stage revision for chronic periprosthetic joint infection of the knee: culture-negative versus culture-positive

BACKGROUND: The effect of negative culture on the treatment outcomes of chronic periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is still controversial. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the outcomes of two-stage revision in culture-negative chronic PJI differ from those in culture-positive PJI. METHODS: The patients who received two-stage revisions due to chronic PJI during the period between 2007 and 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The culture-negative and culture-positive PJI group included 57 cases and 79 cases, respectively. The demographic data, as well as reoperation, mortality, reinfection, and failure rates of each group were evaluated. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in reoperation rate between the two groups for the period from the first-stage surgery to the second-stage revision arthroplasty (p = 0.045). The reoperation rate of the culture-positive group was 25.3% (20/79) whereas that of the culture-negative group was 10.5% (6/57). Among the 136 PJI cases, 97 cases (71.3%) received reimplantation surgery (culture-negative group, 43 cases; culture-positive group, 54 cases). No significant difference was noted between the culture-negative and culture-positive groups with respect to the number of cases that did not undergo reimplantation surgery and the reoperation, reinfection, mortality, and failure rates after two-stage surgery (p > 0.05, all parameters). CONCLUSIONS: The culture outcome had no significant effect on the outcome of the two-stage revision in patients with chronic PJI. The reoperation rate after first-stage surgery was significantly higher in the culture-positive group, but the overall failure rate did not significantly differ in both the groups. The presence of a negative culture might be a good prognostic factor for chronic PJI.