Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticleIncidence of Postoperative Infections Requiring Reoperation After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
Section snippets
Methods
A retrospective review of the PearlDiver Patient Record Database (www.pearldiverinc.com; PearlDiver, Fort Wayne, IN, USA) was conducted for the years 2004 through 2009. This is a commercially available database of nearly 12 million orthopaedic patients searchable by CPT codes. Patient records are obtained from a single insurance company (United HealthCare). Patients who underwent knee arthroscopy were identified with CPT codes 29866 through 29868, 29870, 29873 through 29877, and 29879 through
Overall
A total of 432,038 knee arthroscopies were identified between 2004 and 2009. The total number of secondary procedures that likely represent infection within 30 days of these arthroscopies was 638, for an overall incidence of 0.15%. There were 83 cases of reoperation in the group aged 0 to 19 years, 174 in the group aged 20 to 39 years, 321 in the group aged 40 to 59 years, and 60 in the group aged 60 years or older. Male patients accounted for 451 cases, whereas female patients accounted for
Discussion
This study sought to corroborate the findings of previous studies, as well as investigate differences between age groups, genders, and geographic regions over time. The main advantage of this study as compared with previous investigations of the topic were the large study group size and the ability to use the dataset to track regional and temporal differences in surgical reoperation for infection.
The overall incidence of infection requiring reoperation in this study was 0.15%, which is within
Conclusions
The incidence of infection requiring reoperation after knee arthroscopy from 2004 to 2009 was 0.15%. The incidence was higher among male patients in both the adult and pediatric populations. The incidence of infection decreased from 2004 to 2009 in patients 60 years or older. Among adult patients, the incidence did not vary by age, by region, or by CPT codes that used allografts.
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The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest in the authorship and publication of this article.