Body mass and weight thresholds for increased prosthetic joint infection rates after primary total joint arthroplasty.
Lübbeke A., Zingg M., Vu D., Miozzari HH., Christofilopoulos P., Uçkay I., Harbarth S., Hoffmeyer P.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Obesity increases the risk of deep infection after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). Our objective was to determine whether there may be body mass index (BMI) and weight thresholds indicating a higher prosthetic joint infection rate. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included all 9,061 primary hip and knee arthroplasties (mean age 70 years, 61% women) performed between March 1996 and December 2013 where the patient had received intravenous cefuroxime (1.5 g) perioperatively. The main exposures of interest were BMI (5 categories: