Preoperative Hypoalbuminemia Predicts Infection, Fracture, and Repeat Revision After Revision Total Hip Arthroplasty; Prealbumin Stratification Does Not Refine Risk: A Retrospective Database Analysis

Background/Objectives: Hypoalbuminemia is a marker of poor nutritional status and has been associated with increased postoperative complications following total joint arthroplasty. However, its long-term implications in the revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) population are poorly characterized, and the utility of prealbumin to further risk-stratify these patients remains unclear. We aimed to study the association between preoperative hypoalbuminemia and complications after rTHA. Methods: We identified patients who underwent rTHA with preoperative albumin levels obtained within one month of surgery. Patients were divided into hypoalbuminemia (<3.5 g/dL) and normal albumin (3.5–6.0 g/dL) cohorts. A second analysis was conducted stratifying hypoalbuminemia patients by prealbumin level (<16 mg/dL vs. ≥16 mg/dL), measured within two weeks of surgery. Each cohort was 1:1 propensity score matched with a 1:1 nearest-neighbor greedy matching approach with a 0.10 standard deviation (SD) caliper, following a logistic regression to calculate patient propensity scores. Outcomes were compared at 90-day, 2-year, and 5-year intervals. Results: The matched cohorts included 4137 patients in both the hypoalbuminemia and normal-albumin groups. Hypoalbuminemia was significantly associated with increased short-term rates of any adverse event (38.9% vs. 22.5%; OR 2.195), wound dehiscence (5.4% vs. 3.1%; OR 1.808), surgical site infection (10.7% vs. 5.0%; OR: 2.271), and periprosthetic fracture (13.9% vs. 10.2%; OR: 1.414). Repeat revision THA was significantly more common within 90 days (6.6% vs. 4.5%; OR: 1.490). Periprosthetic fracture and prosthetic loosening were also more common within 2 years and 5 years (q = 0.001). There were no differences in repeat rTHA within 2 years and 5 years. Among hypoalbuminemic patients with prealbumin data, stratification by prealbumin level did not demonstrate any statistically significant differences in 90-day, 2-year, and 5-year complications. Conclusions: Hypoalbuminemia is a strong indicator of increased complication risk after rTHA, with increased risk for complications lasting to at least 5 years postoperatively. However, prealbumin stratification among hypoalbuminemic patients did not differentiate complication risk. These findings support preoperative albumin as a practical biomarker for risk stratification in rTHA patients.