HSS research found that patients who received prophylactic oral antibiotics after aseptic revision total hip arthroplasty had higher rates of infection and wound complications.

“Prescribing postoperative antibiotics should not provide false reassurance. If you are concerned enough to continue antibiotics, the more important question might be why, and these patients may require closer monitoring and further evaluation,” Billy I. Kim, MD, orthopedic surgery resident at HSS, shared with Healio in a recent interview.

Dr. Kim, along with Elizabeth V. Robilotti, MD, Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine Physician at HSS, and colleagues retrospectively collected data among patients who underwent aseptic revision THA who did (n = 840) and did not (n = 1,677) receive postoperative prophylactic oral antibiotics, and matched patients based on demographics, comorbidities, procedure type and healthcare factors. The researchers considered periprosthetic joint infection at 1 year as the primary outcome and healthcare resource utilization, re-revision and adverse events as the secondary outcome measures.

Read the full article at healio.com.