HIP ASPIRATION - A COST-EFFECTIVE AND ACCURATE METHOD OF EVALUATING THE POTENTIALLY INFECTED HIP-PROSTHESIS

PURPOSE: The accuracy of fluoroscopy-guided hip aspiration in the diagnosis of infection in hip prostheses was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Results from 147 preoperative aspiration cultures were compared with results of operative cultures. The relative costs of aspiration and nuclear medicine studies were also compared. RESULTS: With the operative culture results as the standard, sensitivity of hip aspiration was 92.8% and specificity was 91.7%. The negative and positive predictive values were 99.2% and 54.2%, respectively. Aspiration arthrography costs approximately 20% as much as complementary technetium sulfur colloid-indium-111 granulocyte scans, the most accurate nuclear medicine study used to evaluate potentially infected hip prostheses. CONCLUSION: Hip aspiration is an accurate and cost-effective method of evaluating the potentially infected hip prosthesis.