Two studies found patients who receive injections in the months prior to total knee or total hip replacement surgery may have an increased risk for infection and related compilations, according to News-Medical.
Researchers presented the findings at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
From 2005 to 2012, the first study titled "Preoperative Hip Injections Increase the Rate of Periprosthetic Infection after Total Hip Arthroplasty,” analyzed data from 177,762 patients in the Statewide Ambulatory Surgery and Inpatient Database, for Florida and California.
Here are the study's findings.
1. Patients who had injections within three months of THR had a 40 percent greater risk for post-operative infection.
2. For patients who did not receive an injection, the infection rate after one year was 2.06 percent.
3. Patients who did have an infection within three months prior to their procedures had a 2.81 percent infection risk.
4. This study is the first of its kind to provide strong evidence that an infection administered within 12 weeks before THR poses an increased risk of an infection.
5. If patients received injections more than three months before surgery, they appeared safe, with only a 0.87 percent rate of infection.
Researchers in the second study, titled Do Injections Increase the Risk of Infection Following Total Knee Arthroplasty?” analyzed 84,684 patients in the Humana database who had TKR for the first time between 2007 and 2014.
Of the patients, 35.4 percent had an injection at least one year prior to TKR.
Here are the second study's findings.
1. Patients with an injection prior to TKR had a higher infection rate (4.4 percent) than patients who did not (3.6 percent).
2. Of patients requiring a return to the operation room, those with an infection had a 1.5 percent infection rate compared to those without an infection (1 percent).
3. The rate of infection, which required a return to the operating room, was higher for patients receiving injections. Patients who had injection in the months prior to surgery had an odds ratio of 1.8 for an injection within one month of surgery and an OR of 1.4 for an injection seven months prior to TKR.
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