In a paper presented at the Knee Society Meeting in New Orleans on March 15, 2014, Dr. Javad Parvizi presented the results of his work preventing joint infection after total knee and hip replacement surgery. They found strong evidence to support pre-operative health and nutritional status optimization, the use of prophylactic IV antibiotics, antibiotic impregnated cement, and preoperative skin preparation prior to joint replacement surgery.
This supports the program that was instituted at Valley Medical Center, which includes pre-operative skin decolonization, use of chlorhexidine preparation of the skin prior to surgery, nasal decolonization with diluted iodine solution in the operating room itself, and vigilant follow up of patients to minimize the risk of infection. There are multi-modal approaches to minimizing the risk of infection that begin with optimization of the patient prior to surgery and extending through the pre-operative and post-operative period.