The Fate of Two-Stage Reimplantation in Patients Treated with Previous Irrigation and Debridement

Irrigation and debridement (I&D) is an attractive low morbidity solution for acute periprosthetic knee infection. However, the failure rate in the literature is high, averaging 71% (range, 0% to 100%). Patients that fail subsequently undergo 2-stage reimplantation after a prolonged period of illness. This leads to higher surgical risk, further delays in rehabilitation, and may contribute to failure of subsequent revision surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the outcome of patients failing I&D prior to 2-stage reimplantation.