The Prevalence of Bacterial Nasal Colonization in Patients Undergoing Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The objective of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of bacterial nasal colonization in patients who are undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty and to determine whether the prevalence affects the incidence of deep surgical site infections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of the 488 consecutive patients (784 knees) who had been screened for bacterial nasal colonization using nasal swab cultures before elective total knee arthroplasties, 434 patients (88.9%) were available for review at one year postoperatively. We assessed the overall rate of deep surgical site infections in the patients with nasal carriage of bacteria (group I) and in those patients without any bacterial nasal colonization (group II), respectively. RESULTS: Of the 434 patients, 69 (15.9%) had nasal carriage of bacteria. There was 1 infection (0.9%) among 113 knees of 69 patients in group I and 10 infections (1.7%) among 591 knees of 365 patients in group II. Those differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of bacterial nasal colonization in patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty was 15.9% and the preoperative nasal carriage of bacteria did not affect the rate of deep surgical site infections.