DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i03.120

Pages: 1612-1614

Arthroplasty surgery has always been plagued by joint infection. Urinary tract infection (UTI) has always been known to be a silent player causing hematogenous spread of infection. We wanted to conduct a focused study to reveal this fact and the measures that can be taken to lower the rate of such infections. We assessed the records of 150 patients who went through arthroplasty procedures in our hospital in the past 10 months. We checked for UTI history, treatment history and any joint infections. We also checked to peri operative catheterization history and epidural anesthesia history. 12 out of the 40 patients (30 %) who were catheterized had a post operative UTI while 2 of them (5%) also got a post operative wound infection. On the other hand, only 1 out of the 110 (< 1%) non catheterized patients got post operative UTI and none of them had any post operative wound infection (0%). Patients with epidural anaesthesia had a higher UTI (34%) and wound infection rate (7%) as compared to the rest (2.4 % and none). There is a definite correlation between UTI and post op wound infection, Peri operative catheterization leads to higher UTI and wound infection and so does epidural catheterization. Pre op patients treated adequately with an antibiotic regimen fair almost as well as non UTI patients.