How Reliable Is the Absolute Synovial Polymorphonuclear Neutrophil Cell Count in Diagnosing Periprosthetic Joint Infection?

BACKGROUND

Diagnosing periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a daunting task for even the most experienced orthopedic surgeons, as there is currently no test available that can provide absolute accuracy. Utilizing an established synovial indicator for detecting PJI without incurring additional costs or resources would be the optimal solution for predicting the presence of infection. Therefore, we hypothesized that synovial absolute neutrophil count (ANC) would improve the diagnostic accuracy of chronic knee and hip PJI.

METHODS

The study included 260 patients (134 men and 126 women, mean age of 70 years [range, 26 to 89]) who underwent aspiration during preoperative workup. Of these, 109 patients (41.9%) were diagnosed with chronic PJI (50 knees, 59 hips), and 151 patients (58.1%) were diagnosed as aseptic (94 knees, 57 hips). Data obtained from all patients included age, sex, procedure type (total hip or total knee arthroplasty), operation side, synovial white blood cell count (cells/μL), synovial polymorphonuclear cells percentage, and synovial α-defensin immunoassay value at the admission were retrieved from the electronic medical record.

RESULTS

The calculated optimal threshold for synovial ANC of 1,415.5 cells/μL was associated with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.930 for chronic knee PJI diagnosis. The calculated optimal threshold for synovial ANC of 2,247 cells/μL was associated with an AUC of 0.905 for chronic hip PJI diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has conclusively shown that the synovial ANC serves as a valuable marker in the complicated diagnosis of PJI. This highly effective and efficient approach should be utilized for obtaining further information through standard tests, thereby ruling out the possibility of PJI.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.