Presentation and Outcomes of Peri-Prosthetic Joint Infection: A Comparison of Culture-Positive and Culture-Negative Disease

Background: Peri-prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a debilitating and costly complication of joint replacement. Synovial fluid cultures are negative in up to 25% of PJI cases. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of culture negative and culture positive PJI. Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study including all patients aged 18 and older admitted to a single tertiary-care hospital between 1998 and 2015 diagnosed with PJI and treated with antibiotic agents and surgery. Results: One hundred ninety-six patients with PJI were identified; 48 (24.5%) were culture-negative (CN) and 148 (75.5%) were culture-positive (CP). The groups were similar in age and presence of associated comorbidities. Fever was more common among the CP patients (CN, 23.8%; CP, 38.4%; p = 0.03) as was sepsis defined by Sepsis-2 criteria (CN, 12.8%; CP, 28.7%; p = 0.03). Patients who were CP had higher synovial white blood cell (WBC) count (CN, 30,500 per milliliter; CP, 95,400 per milliliter; p < 0.01), a longer length of stay (CN, 3.8%; CP,7.9%; p = 0.02), and fewer alternative diagnoses established within one year (CN, 25.0%; CP, 2.7%; p < 0.01). Our logistic regression models also found that CP patients had an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.59 for rehabilitation placement with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.15–5.83 and adjusted OR of 0.04 for an alternative diagnosis within one year with 95% CI, 0.009–0.22 compared with their CN counterparts. Conclusions: This study suggests that patients with CN PJI have less severe disease, better outcomes, and higher rates of alternative diagnoses within one year.