Infected hip prosthesis, a devastating complication of primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) can lead to a serious condition. We report here the treatment outcome of our method of two-stage revision THA for infected hip arthroplasty using a temporary antibiotic-impregnated cement spacer for the period between resection and reimplantation.

Between 1996 and 2000, we performed two-stage revision THA using a temporary antibiotic-impregnated cement spacer on eight hips in eight patients with infected hip arthroplasty including hemiarthroplasty, with the infection presenting itself between four days and 19.4 years after last operation. There were four females and four males, with a mean age of 67 years (58 to 72). The mean period of follow-up was 2.5 years (0.3 to 4.3). Cementless THA was implanted as the second srage procedure. Bone defects were restored with frozen allografts. The clinical outcome was evaluated using the hip score of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA hip score).

The duration of follow-up was 33.9 months (range, 8 to 55 months). The mean JOA hip score at follow-up improved from 32.6 (19 to 74) to 77.1 (59 to 96). The mean interval period was 10.3 weeks (range, 6 to 19 weeks). Seven patients with infected hip arthroplasty successfully received implantation by two-stage cement-less revision THA.

One patient with MRSA infection had a recurrence after four months of revision of THA. However, the two-stage procedure using a vancomicin-impregnated bone cement spacer and beads implantation successfully treated this patient 14 months after the first revision of THA. No recurrence of infection was found at 42 months of follow-up.

These results suggest that two-stage revision THA using a temporary antibiotic-impregnated cement spacer is a useful technique for infected hip arthroplasty.