Preoperative Aspiration Culture (PAC) for the Diagnosis of Infection in a Prosthetic Knee Joint

Periprosthetic infection is the most serious joint replacement complication, occurring in 0.8-1.9% of total
knee arthroplasties (TKAs).
This review aims to define the role of preoperative aspiration culture (PAC) for diagnosis of TKA infection. A PubMed (MEDLINE) search related to TKA infection and PAC was analyzed. The main criteria for selection
were that the articles were focused in the aforementioned question. Twenty articles were found, but only fourteen were selected and reviewed because they were deeply
focused on the topic. PAC has shown an average sensitivity of 67.6% (range, 28% to 100%) and an average
specificity of 98.4% (range, 96% to 100%). PAC has moderate to high sensitivity and very high specificity for diagnosing TKA infection.