Improving Microbiological Diagnosis of Prosthetic Joint–Related Infections

Identifying the pathogen responsible for prosthetic joint–related infections is often difficult, particularly when cultures are not obtained until after patients have already received antimicrobial therapy. Previous studies have shown that diagnostic yield improves with sonication of resected prosthetic joints and culture of the sonication fluid. Might molecular methods enhance diagnosis even further?

Investigators prospectively enrolled 37 consecutive adult patients with prosthetic joint–related infections at a single hospital in Switzerland. In all cases, the affected joint was completely or partially removed at the time the infection was diagnosed. The removed implant was sonicated, and the sonication fluid was evaluated by both culture a…