Young age and male gender cited as risk factors for in-hospital SSI after THA, TKA

Orthopedics Today, September 2012 ?? Read Study Here

A recently presented study identified age, gender and racial minority status as risk factors for perioperative surgical site infection following total hip and knee arthroplasty.

“Our regression model revealed that patient-related factors such as age younger than 44 years, male gender and [racial] minority were associated with the highest odds of [surgical site infections],” Lazaros A. Poultsides, MD, PhD…

…Poultsides and his group analyzed national inpatient sample hospitalization data for total hip arthroplasties (THAs) and total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) between 1998 and 2007. They found 412,356 patient entries for THA and 784,335 entries for TKA…

…Compared to a referent group of patients aged 45 years to 64 years, patients aged 44 years or younger had 1.7 times higher odds of having an SSI. Compared to the referent group, patients aged 65 years to 74 years had a 0.9 times higher odds, and those 75 years or older had a 0.98 times higher odds.

The investigators also found that men had a 1.33 times higher odds for SSIs than women…