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Infection rates with use of intra‐articular pain catheters in total knee arthroplasty
Author(s) -
Ham Andrew,
Goyal Navendu,
Harris Ian A.,
Chen Darren B.,
MacDessi Samuel J.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/ans.13486
Subject(s) - medicine , total knee arthroplasty , surgery , arthroplasty , infection rate , retrospective cohort study , anesthesia
Background Intra‐articular pain catheters effectively reduce postoperative pain in total knee arthroplasty ( TKA ) by delivering analgesia to the surgical site. However, concerns exist regarding the potential for increasing deep infections. This study tested the hypothesis that intra‐articular pain catheters in TKA increase the rate of deep surgical site infections. Methods A retrospective analysis of 1915 patients undergoing primary TKA between January 2008 and December 2013 was undertaken, comparing infection rates between patients with intra‐articular catheters inserted and those without. Results Deep infection rate was 0.53% with intra‐articular pain catheters, compared with 0.77% when the catheters were not inserted. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups ( P = 0.56). Conclusion Intra‐articular pain catheters in TKA did not increase the rate of deep infection.