Microbiological Profile of Periprosthetic Joint Infections: A Retrospective Analysis from North India.

With the rise in total joint arthroplasties, prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) have become a significant complication, leading to high morbidity. The causative organisms of PJIs vary by region, and the rates of drug-resistant organisms are growing, thus complicating the initial empiric choice of antibiotics. This retrospective study analyzed records of patients with orthopedic implants and intraoperative tissue samples sent for sonication and culture at a tertiary care hospital in India. The most common organism was Staphylococcus aureus (14 out of 86 bacterial isolates, 16.3%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12 out of 86, 13.9%), and both Staphylococcus epidermidis and Klebsiella pneumoniae (11 each out of 86, 12.8%). There was a high prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms, and 35% of the gram-negative organisms were carbapenem resistant. Our study reveals that in our setting, PJIs are chiefly driven by multidrug resistant gram-negative bacteria.