Purpose: The purpose of this hospital-based case-control study was to evaluate the risk factors for periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in Chinese patients.
Method: From January 2000 to December 2012, 45 patients undergoing THA and TKA who developed PJI were recruited for case subjects; controls were 252 without PJI, matched by year of index for surgery and type of surgery. Conditional logistic regressions were run to compute odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Demographic factors and comorbid conditions associated with an increased adjusted risk of PJI (in decreasing order of significance) were diabetes (OR = 5.47, 95% CI: 1.77-16.97; p = 0.003), age (65-75 vs. 45-65 years) (OR = 3.36, 95% CI: 1.30-8.69; p = 0.013), BMI (≥28 vs. 18.5-28 kg/m2) (OR = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.20-6.40; p = 0.017), place of residence (rural) (OR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.13-6.10; p = 0.025) and alcohol abuse (OR = 2.95, 95% CI: 1.06-8.23; p = 0.039).
Conclusion: Patients with diabetes, older age, BMI of ≥28 kg/m2 and alcohol abuse or living in rural areas, had increased PJI risk. Additional systematic large-scale studies are needed to verify these results.