Observational and retrospective comparison of incidence or prevalence of all risk factors described in the literature. These factors have been classified according to the period of risk in: epidemiologic; pre, intra and postoperative; and distant infections.
Pearson was used for comparison of qualitative variables and ANOVA for quantitative ones.
Preoperative conditions: previous surgery in the same knee (25% vs 9%), chronic therapy with glucocorticoids (19% vs 4%), immunosuppressive treatments (16% vs 3%), and non-rheumatoid inflammatory arthritis (13% vs 0%). Patients in this case-control did not present a significant difference in the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, obesity (BMI>
30), chronic liver diseases, or alcohol addiction. Intraoperative facts: a prolonged surgical time (149 min vs 108 min) and intraoperative fractures. Differences were not found in the amount of bleeding or need for transfusion. Postoperative events: secretion of the wound longer than 10 days (48% vs 0%), wound haematoma (36% vs 6%), new surgery in the knee (30% vs 0%), and deep venous thrombosis in lower limbs (10% vs 1%). Distant infections (risk for haematogenous seeding): deep cutaneous (27% vs 3%), generalized sepsis (7% vs 0%), upper and lower urinary tract (27% vs 5%), pneumonias and bronchopneumonias (27% vs 5%), and diverse abdominal focus (17% vs 1%). On the contrary, significant differences were not found in the prevalence of severe oral or dental infections. Epidemiologic characteristics: significant differences were not found in gender or in the prevalence of any aetiology.
to control and minimize these risk factors when present when this is not possible not possible, to implement additional prophylactic measures.
