Purpose: We report a retrospective monocentric evaluation of surgical lavage for early infection(≤ 30 days) after total hip arthroplasty.

Material and methods: Thirty-four patients, mean age 67.8± 12.1 years) who developed grade II infection in the Gustillo and Tsukayama classification were treated between 1992 and 1995 by surgical debridement and adapted antibiotherapy for a limited duration. Arthroplasty was indicated for primary hip degeneration (n=17), secondary hip degeneration (n=11), or neck fracture (n=6). There were 25 first-intention arthroplasties and nine revision arthroplasties. Seventeen patients had risk factors for infection.

All patient were followed for at least four years. Therapeutic efficacy was assessed on the basis of clinical and laboratory findings and radiographic results. We searched for biological or bacteriological factors predictive of good outcome. The chi-square test and Fisher exact tet were used to compare population distributions and Student’s t test and Mann Whitney test to compare means.

Results: Mean follow-up was five year, 74% of the patients developed recurrent infection. A second treatment protocol was implemented for only 56% of these patients and was effective against the infection and satisfactory for functional outcome (28% of the patients underwent revision for extraction of the prosthesis and 16% were given continuous antibiotics). There was a significant difference in the efficacy of the surgical lavage for delay ≤ 21 days (p = 0.02). Statistical analysis suggested the type of germ (p = 0.006), and presence of risk factors (p= 0.0052) had a significant influence.

Discussion: Attractive because minimally invasive, surgical lavage appears to limit acute symptoms without eradicating infection. Furthermore, if the failure is recognised late after infection has become chronic, the efficacy of revision is compromised and may lead to poor mid-term function. Like other authors, we identified delay to treatment as the one significant factor. These poor results have incited us to limit indications for surgical lavage to cases of infection diagnosed very early, programming secondary revision for very debilitated patients. Close and prolonged follow-up is indispensable.