Long-Term Oral Antibiotic Therapy Improves Outcomes After Prosthetic Joint Infection

Prosthetic joint infections are uncommon (following total joint arthroplasty, risk is about 1%), but they can be devastating and very difficult to treat. Orthopedists and infectious disease consultants sometimes recommend prolonged oral antibiotics after the standard treatment of joint irrigation, one-stage or two-stage surgery, and a 2- to 6-week postoperative course of intravenous antibiotics. However, much of the data supporting long-term antibiotics is anecdotal, and which patients benefit most is unclear.

In a retrospective case-control study, researchers identified 92 patients who were seen between 1996 and 2010 at a large referral hospital and given long-term antibiotic suppression (mean duration, 64 months) after acute surgical and m…