Septic arthritis(infection) or ‘prosthesis infection’ may develop on prosthesis joint in early(first 1-3 months) or late(after 3 months) period following the hip and knee prosthesis replacements due to several problems such as primary osteoartritis, postraumatic osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and avascular necrosis. The pre-existing infection on the prosthesis joint, sepsis, infection on tissue in the neighboring of the joint, surgical treatment history, uncontrollable diabetes mellitus, malnutrition, morbid obesity(BMI over 40 kg/m2), immunosuppression, long period of hospitalisation, chronic liver and kidney disease, over consumption of cigarette and alcohol, presence of immunosuppressing viruses such as Hepatitis C and AIDS, increase the risk of infection. The other important factors are poor personal hygiene, inadequate sterile environment in the operating rooms and poor aseptic practises of the surgical staff. The most prevalent microorganisms are meticilline sensitive or meticilline resistant staphyloccous aureus.
The management of the infected prosthesis is more difficult than the primary prosthesis procedure and increases the costs for the patients and physicians. Therefore, the management of prosthesis infection must be performed in ultra sterile physical conditions by the experienced surgeons.
