The incidence of prosthetic joint infections can be severe to monitor, as they are rare events. Recent publications from National registries points toward a significant underestimation of reported infections. The aim of this project was to develop a complication register that could report the “true” and momentaneous incidence of prosthetic infections after total knee and hip arthroplasty. All patients operated with total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) at our hospital were included in a local quality registry. All complications were reported at follow-up at 2 and 3 months for total knee and hip arthroplasties respectively, and at 1-year follow up. Both primary and revision surgeries were included. In order to monitor complications of special interest, such as deep postoperative infections, key variables were presented in a g-chart. This chart shows the number of uncomplicated surgeries between each complication (such as infection) in a bar diagram. This diagram is easily read as high bars indicate a low incidence of complications and low bars indicate a high incidence. The diagram is updated and distributed for information every month.Aim
Method
