The Cost-Effectiveness of Preoperative Staphylococcus aureus Screening and Decolonization in Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Background: This article presents a break-even analysis for preoperative Staphylococcus aureus colonization screening and decolonization protocols in total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Methods: Protocol costs, baseline infection rates after arthroplasty, and average revision costs were obtained from institutional records and the literature. The break-even analysis determined the absolute risk reduction (ARR) in infection rate required for cost-effectiveness.

Results: S aureus nasal screening ($144.07) was cost effective when initial infection rates of TKA (1.10%) and THA (1.63%) had an ARR of 0.56% and 0.45%, respectively. The most inexpensive decolonization treatment ($5.09) was cost effective with an ARR of 0.02% for both TKA and THA. The most expensive decolonization option ($37.67) was cost effective with ARRs of 0.15% (TKA) and 0.12% (THA).

Conclusion: Preoperative S aureus decolonization can be highly cost effective, whereas colonization screening requires excessively high reductions in infection rate.