Migrating Periprosthetic Infection from a Total Hip Replacement to a Contralateral Non-Operated Osteoarthritic Knee Joint

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Author Info

George A Komnos Antonios Papadopoulos Efstratios Athanaselis Theofilos Karachalios Sokratis E. Varitimidis

Corresponding Author

Sokratis E. Varitimidis
Professor of Orthopaedics, University of Thessaly, School of Health Science, Greece

A B S T R A C T

Introduction: There is a paucity of published data on whether a treated infected arthroplasty is a risk factor for infection in another, non-operated joint. Contamination of a primary, arthritic, non-operated joint from an infected arthroplasty is a relatively rare entity. Case: We report a case of migration of a pathogen (Enterococcus faecalis) from an infected prosthetic joint (hip) to the contralateral native joint (knee). Identification of the pathogen was made with PCR, by obtaining cultures during the implantation of the primary knee prosthesis. Conclusion: Contamination of a primary, arthritic, non-operated joint from an infected arthroplasty has not been widely reported. Management of such cases is extremely challenging and without clear and established guidelines. Our experience shows that tissue samples should be taken intraoperatively and sent for cultures, so as to exclude contamination in those cases.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Report

Publication history

Received: Mon 05, Dec 2022
Accepted: Tue 27, Dec 2022
Published: Thu 05, Jan 2023

Copyright

© 2023 Sokratis E. Varitimidis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.IJSCR.2022.03.02