title: Incidence of infectious complications in hip and knee arthroplasties in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the major indications of total hip (THA) or knee (TKA) arthroplasty. International studies have suggested that RA is a risk factor for prosthesis infections.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare patients with RA and patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of other etiologies with regard to the incidence of prosthesis, incisional, and other systemic postoperative infections in THA and TKA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective, comparative cohort of patients followed up after undergoing THA or TKA at the Hospital SARAH-Brasília, from 1996 to 2007.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-five arthroplasties (28 TKA and 47 THA) were identified in RA patients. As controls, 131 surgeries (56 TKA and 75 THA) in OA patients were randomly selected and stratified by surgery and gender. No significant difference was observed between the RA and OA groups regarding the rates of prosthesis infections (TKA 7.1% vs. 0% and THA 2.1% vs. 0%, respectively, both with P > 0.1), incisional infections (TKA 14.3% vs. 3.3% and THA 4.3 vs. 1.3%, respectively, both with P > 0.1), and systemic infections (TKA 7.1% vs. 3.6%, P = 0.92 and THA 4.3% vs. 10.7%, P > 0.1, respectively). After multiple logistic regression, the results did not change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RA was not identified as a risk factor for perioperative infections in THA and TKA in this case series of the Hospital SARAH-Brasília, as compared with the group of patients with primary OA or OA secondary to non-inflammatory diseases. The low incidence of infections in both groups may explain our findings.
authors: Hospital SARAH, Brasília.
authors: Bernardo Matos
authors: BM
authors: da Cunha
authors: Sandro Barbosa
authors: SB
authors: de Oliveira
authors: Leopoldo
authors: L
authors: Santos-Neto
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000601:surgery*; D019644:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006622:Hip Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D007720:Knee Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015207:Osteoarthritis, Hip / Q000601:surgery*; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000601:surgery*; D016459:Prosthesis-Related Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*