title: The clinical significance of femoral head culture results in donors after hip arthroplasty: a preliminary report.
abstract: The aim of this study is to determine whether a link exists between clinical wound problems and positive bacterial culture of the femoral head after primary hip arthroplasty. Clinical data were retrieved for 24 culture-positive and 26 culture-negative patients. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was the commonest pathogen, cultured in 19 of the 24 culture-positive femoral heads donated to a regional bone bank. Wound problems occurred in 2 of the patients from the culture-positive group and 4 of the patients from the culture-negative group. The relative risk of wound problems was 0.54 in the culture-positive group. Based on the available evidence in this preliminary short-term retrospective review, positive microbiology from donated femoral heads has no clinical implication in the donors. The practice of reporting culture-positive femoral heads should be continued.
authors.affiliation: Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Wansbeck General Hospital, Northumberland, United Kingdom. lajames@rcsed.ac.uk
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gower
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018586:Bone Banks; D005260:Female; D005270:Femur Head / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016459:Prosthesis-Related Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000382:microbiology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome