Radiographic Evidence of Soft-Tissue Gas 14 Days After Total Knee Arthroplasty Is Predictive of Early Prosthetic Joint Infection.

The diagnosis of early prosthetic joint infection (PJI)-defined as within 6 weeks after a total knee arthroplasty (TKA)-can be difficult because of expected postsurgical changes and elevated inflammatory markers. The role of radiographic evaluation in this situation carries unclear clinical significance. This study had three primary aims: first, to determine when soft-tissue gas is no longer an expected postoperative radiographic finding; second, to determine whether soft-tissue gas is predictive of early PJI; and, third, to determine whether the presence of soft-tissue gas correlates with specific patient characteristics and microbiology culture results. This retrospective study was of patients who underwent TKA from 2008 to 2018 with available imaging between 5 days and 6 weeks after TKA and no interval intervention before imaging. All confirmed early PJIs were included ( = 24 cases; 15 patients). For comparison, patients who underwent TKA but did not have a PJI ( = 180 cases; 150 patients) were selected randomly. Radiographs were reviewed by two readers. A two-tailed < 0.05 was considered significant. Soft-tissue gas was identified on postoperative radiography of 13 of 24 (54.2%) cases (mean ± standard error of the mean [SEM], 28.3 ± 2.3 days after TKA) with early PJI and four of 180 (2.2%) cases (mean ± SEM, 15.3 ± 7.3 days after TKA) without PJI ( < 0.0001; odds ratio, 52.0 [95% CI, 14.7-156.9]). The presence of soft-tissue gas on radiography 14 days after TKA had a sensitivity of 0.54 (95% CI, 0.35-0.72) and specificity of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.97-1.00) for early PJI. species were the dominant organisms; cases with soft-tissue gas showed a wider variety of microbiology species ( < 0.01). Postoperative soft-tissue gas present on radiography performed 14 days or more after TKA is predictive of early PJI and is associated with a wider spectrum of microorganisms.