Background: Infection diagnosis in THA remains difficult in some cases. Intraoperative analysis of frozen sections is related to the high sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy. However, it is a technically demanding procedure and is not a universally accepted method. In the present study, we compared interleukin-6 (IL6) serum level with the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) and the analysis of frozen sections of intraoperative specimens (FS).
Materials: Sixty-nine patients with a THA needing a reoperation due to a suspected infection or another aseptic failure were studied. Patients with chronic inflam-matory diseases, antibiotic treatment prior to surgery, Paget’s diseases and immunodeficiency syndromes were excluded from the study. The mean age at the time of the operation was 68 years old (range: 39 to 91). ESR, CRP and the serum level of IL6 were measured in blood samples before surgery. The cut-off levels were: ESR: ≥ 32 mm/hr, CRP: ≥ 3.2 mg/dl and interleukin-6 ≥ 12 pg/ml. Intraoperatively, samples of tissues were taken to be analyzed immediately on FS, to be routinely processed at the moment and to be referred for bacteriological cultures and histological study.
Results: Eleven (16%) of the 69 hips were infected. ESR showed a sensitivity of 0.72 (0.41 to 1.00), a specificity of 0.86 (0.76 to 0.95), a positive predictive value of 0.50 (0.22 to 0.77), and a negative predictive value of 0.94 (0.84 to 1.00).CRP showed a sensitivity of 0.72 (0.41 to 1.00), a specificity of 0.91 (0.83 to 0.99), a positive predictive value of 0.61 (0.31 to 0.91), and a negative predictive value of 0.94 (0.87 to 1.00). IL6 showed a sensitivity of 0.36 (0.30 to 0.69), a specificity of 0.94 (0.88 to 1.00), a positive predictive value of 0.57 (0.13 to 1.00), and a negative predictive value of 0.88 (0.80 to 0.97). The evaluation of the FS showed a sensitivity of 0.81 (0.54 to 1.00), a specificity of 0.98 (0.94 to 1.00), a positive predictive value of 0.90 (0.66 to 1.00), and a negative predictive value of 0.96 (0.91 to 1.00).The combination of CRP and IL6 identified all patients with deep infection of the implant and showed a sensitivity of 0.57 (0.13 to 1.00), a specificity of 1.00 (0.99 to 1.00), a positive predictive value of 1.00 (0.87 to 1.00), and a negative predictive value of 0.94 (0.87 to 1.00).
Conclusion: In this study, we obtained similar results combining CRP and IL6 as with the analysis of the frozen sections, which has been in the past our first option to determine whether a THA is infected or not. IL6 and CRP may be used as a valuable routine diagnostic tool in revision THA.
