Efficacy of perioperative cryotherapy combined with intra-articular injection of tranexamic acid in total knee arthroplasty.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of perioperative cryotherapy combined with intra-articular injection of tranexamic acid (TXA) in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and explore a new strategy of enhanced recovery after TKA. METHODS: We randomly divided 200 patients into 4 groups: normal saline (10 mL) by drainage (Group A, placebo); intra-articular injection of TXA (1 g, 10 mL, Group B); normal saline (10 mL) and continuous cryotherapy postoperatively (Group C) and intra-articular injection of TXA (1 g, 10 mL) and continuous cryotherapy postoperatively (Group D). Primary outcomes were blood loss volume, postoperative pain and circumference variation. We also recorded consumption of analgesics, postoperative length of stay (p-LOS), range of motion (ROM), function score (Hospital for Special Surgery) and severe complications. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences in postoperative drainage volume, total blood loss, hidden blood loss, and visual analogue scale at rest and walking on postoperative day 1 (POD1), POD2, POD3, ROM (POD3, 7, discharge, postoperative month), circumference variation (POD3, 7), p-LOS, Hospital for Special Surgery score (discharge) and drop of hemoglobin on POD3 (P < .05) among 4 groups, but there were no significant differences in intraoperative blood loss, postoperative prothrombin, activated partial thromboplastin time, overall number of patients or total consumption of oxycodone and perioperative complications (e.g., incidence of surgical site infection, deep venous thrombosis, and cold injury) among them (P > .05). CONCLUSION: Continuous cryotherapy combined with intra-articular injection of TXA provides short-term advantages in reducing blood loss, pain, postoperative swelling, p-LOS and increasing ROM and joint function in the early postoperative period after TKA without increasing any severe complications.

Current evidence does not support systematic antibiotherapy prior to joint arthroplasty in patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria-a meta analysis.

BACKGROUND: Many orthopaedic surgeons worry about asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) as a possible risk factor for prosthetic joint infection (PJI). However, available evidence establishing a direct link between ASB and PJI is limited. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate whether ASB is a factor for PJI and whether pre-operative antibiotic treatment shows benefit. METHOD: We systematically searched major databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE for studies. Risk ratio (RR) was calculated for included studies that reported raw counts with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: Five studies involved 3588 joint arthroplasties and 441 cases of ASB (overall incidence 12.3%). Compared with the control group, PJI was more common in both patients in the ASB group (RR = 2.87; 95% CI, 1.65-5.00). But in all five studies, the micro-organisms isolated from PJI and urine cultures were not the same. Three of the five studies reported that the antibiotic treated the ASB prior to joint arthroplasty and compared the untreated ASB group.There was no significant difference between groups (RR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.36-2.20). DISCUSSION: PJI occurring via the haematogenous route from the genitourinary tract harbouring bacteria in ASB is impossible. Pre-operative antibiotic treatment has no benefit. A plausible explanation could be an indicator of frailty and increased susceptibility to infection. CONCLUSIONS: ASB increased the risk of PJI in the meta-analysis. However, current evidence does not support systematic antibiotherapy prior to joint arthroplasty and screening for ASB.