ICJR INTERVIEWS DIAGNOSING PJI WITH SALINE LAVAGE ASPIRATION

Up to 30% of hip aspirations done at the Cleveland Clinic to confirm a diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) in total hip arthroplasty (THA) patients are dry aspirations. Dry aspiration is unreliable for making the diagnosis, however, so surgeons there had been adding a saline lavage and then aspirating the fluid for analysis. With nothing in the literature to validate this practice, Carlos A. Higuera, MD, and his Cleveland Clinic colleagues retrospectively reviewed their data to determine if saline lavage aspiration is a reliable means of diagnosing a PJI in THA patients compared with synovial fluid aspiration.