The infection score will make it possible to differentiate correctly between infected and non-infected patients in 75% of cases.
One hundred and four records from patients who underwent THA revision for any reason were analysed retrospectively: 43 with infection and 61 without infection. There were 54 men and 50 women with an average age of 70 ± 12 years (range 30–90). A univariate analysis was performed to look for individual discriminating factors between the data in the medical records of infected and non-infected patients. A multivariate analysis subsequently integrated these factors together. A composite score was defined and its diagnostic effectiveness was evaluated as the percentage of correctly classified records, along with its sensitivity and specificity.
The score consisted of the following individually weighed factors: body mass index, presence of diabetes, mechanical complication, wound healing disturbance and fever. This composite infection score was able to distinguish correctly between the infected patients (positive score) and non-infected patients (negative score) in 78% of cases; the sensitivity was 57% and the specificity 93%.
Once this score is evaluated prospectively, it could be an important tool for defining the medical – surgical strategy during THA revision, no matter the reason for revision.
Level IV – retrospective study.