Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jun 18, 2022; 13(6): 615-621
Published online Jun 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i6.615
Role of joint aspiration before re-implantation in patients with a cement spacer in place
Sandra Huguet, Martí Bernaus, Lucía Gómez, Eva Cuchí, Alex Soriano, Lluís Font-Vizcarra
Sandra Huguet, Department of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Hospital Universitari Mútua Terrassa, Terrassa 08221, Spain
Sandra Huguet, Department of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Consorci Sanitari de l’Alt Penedès - Garraf, Vilafranca del Penedès 08720, Spain
Martí Bernaus, Lluís Font-Vizcarra, Department of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Osteoarticular Infections Unit, Hospital Universitari Mútua Terrassa, Terrassa 08221, Spain
Lucía Gómez, Eva Cuchí, Osteoarticular Infections Unit, Hospital Universitari Mútua Terrassa, Terrassa 08221, Spain
Eva Cuchí, Department of Microbiology, CATLAB, Viladecavalls 08232, Spain
Alex Soriano, Department of Infectious Diseases, Osteoarticular Infections Unit, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona 08036, Spain
Author contributions: Huguet S wrote this manuscript; Huguet S, Bernaus M, Gómez L, Cuchí E, Soriano A, and Font-Vizcarra L commented on previous versions of the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Mútua Terrassa Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: No written consent was needed for this article. No identifying information is included in this article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sandra Huguet, MD, Surgeon, Department of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Hospital Universitari Mútua Terrassa, Plaça del Doctor Robert, 5, Terrassa 08221, Spain. sahuguet@csap.cat
Received: December 27, 2021
Peer-review started: December 27, 2021
First decision: January 25, 2022
Revised: April 4, 2022
Accepted: May 13, 2022
Article in press: May 13, 2022
Published online: June 18, 2022
Processing time: 171 Days and 9.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Many parameters and diagnostic methods have been analyzed to determine the optimal time to perform the second stage of a two-staged revision surgery. Synovial fluid culture after joint aspiration seems to be a reasonable test to evaluate the presence of microorganisms in the joint. However, the effectiveness of this diagnostic test is unclear. Despite the lack of validation, synovial aspiration is a common practice before prosthesis reimplantation. With our results, we found no evidence to support mandatory joint aspiration before re-implantation in patients with a cement spacer in place.