OBJECTIVE: The most commonly used treatment for deep infections in knee total arthroplasties has been the two-steps review. Even following the steps recommended for this kind of treatment, still doubts exist about the right period to perform the second step of the review without risks of placing a new implant in an infected area. Our paper was aimed to determine the value of culture obtained through arthroscopic biopsy, in order to establish the appropriate moment for performing the second review step, and also the adequate time of spacer maintenance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve patients diagnosed with deep infection following primary knee total arthroplasty were submitted to the two-steps review protocol, and after six weeks of spacer placement and antibiotic therapy, the patient was submitted to arthroscopic biopsy of the infected knee through which samples were collected for culture in order to check if that was the appropriate moment to perform the second step of the review. RESULTS: The results of cultures for all patients submitted to arthroscopic biopsy were negative, with all patients being submitted to the second review step. From cultures collected during the new prosthesis implant, eleven confirmed the inexistence of active infectious process at surgical site; one culture was positive, with Staphyloccocus aureus sensitive to oxacilin being isolated in this patient. CONCLUSION: Although the small number of cases, we concluded that the culture obtained through arthroscopic biopsy is valuable and showed that six weeks is the adequate time for maintaining the spacer.
Arthroplasty; Knee; Infection; Arthroscopy; Treatment
