Increased Detection of Polymicrobial Infections by Sonication and Significance of Prosthesis Design and Fixation Technique in Cases of Low-Grade PJI, a Retrospective Study

Introduction: Low-grade PJI remains a diagnostic dilemma in the medical community. It is mainly caused by low-virulent bacteria that cause chronic infection. This is mainly due to the formation of biofilms on the implant surface. This biofilm formation poses a diagnostic challenge that causes difficulties in the microbiological diagnosis of the infection by conventional culture methods. Sonication culture of implants has proven to be useful for biofilm forming bacteria. Therefore, we examined the evaluation of low-grade PJI using sonication culture methods and searched for influencing factors. The methods: Between October 2016 and November 2019 we retrospectively examined adult patients with suggestive clinical and laboratory findings of low-grade PJI. The patient's medical history, demographic information, prosthesis type, laboratory findings and length of hospital stay were collected. The results of the microbiological culture were divided into the results of the conventional preoperative and intraoperative culture method and the results of the sonication. In addition, laboratory chemical diagnostics of the joint punctures and CRP determination were performed. Additionally, the influence of prosthesis design and fixation technique, with and without cement, was investigated. The Results: Fifty-two patients with a mean age of 70.5 years were included in this study. The female population was more frequently affected. The most frequently affected joints were hip and knee. A higher percentage of pathogen detection was found at sonication with 60% of positive cultures, compared to 52% of intraoperative and 40% of preoperative conventional positive culture findings. The majority of patients were monomicrobial infections, with Staphylococcus epidermidis being the most frequently detected etiologic pathogen. The sonication culture was best able to detect a polymicrobial infection in 14% of cases compared to 6% of intraoperative and 4% of preoperative conventional cultures. Patients with a polymicrobial infection showed higher CRP values (P = 0.0172) and longer hospitalization (P = 0.0017) than monomicrobial infected patients. The results of the intraoperative conventional culture showed the highest congruence with the results of the sonication culture (concordance of 79%) compared to the preoperative culture. An infectious histopathological classification confirmed the microbiological ultrasound findings in 69% of cases with an infectious category. Cemented fixation showed a trend towards less positive microbiological findings, and total hip arthroplasty showed the highest detection of bacteria by sonication culture compared to bicondylar surface knee replacement (P = 0.0072). Conclusion: The sonication culture proved to be an important microbiological diagnostic tool, especially for the detection of polymicrobial infections in cases of low-grade PJI. This method has an established place in the diagnosis of low-grade PJI. The prosthesis design and the cemented fixation technique seem to have an influence on the detection of bacteria.