Researchers in 2018 suggested guidelines to decide if a single surgery (one-stage exchange) could be used to treat a joint implant infection. We wanted to see how many patients met guidelines and if they had better outcomes. Very few patients with joint implant infections met guidelines for a single surgery. Also, being in good general health with a known cause of infection did not guarantee better results. This supports the need for a bigger study comparing one- and two-step treatments.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of a frequently used treatment strategy for chronic prosthetic joint infection of the hip and knee. Forty-seven patients met the inclusion criteria. Successful eradication was achieved in 36 of 47 cases. Multiple variables were analysed to explore their influence on the outcome of two-stage revision surgery. No variables were found to have a significant influence. Mean follow-up of over 10 years provides a good perspective of the long-term outcome.

Infection after total hip (THA) or total knee (TKA) arthroplasty can be treated by a so-called DAIR procedure within 4 weeks after surgery. However, could a DAIR be successful up to 3 months? In the Dutch Arthroplasty Register we found a re-revision rate of 8% within 4 weeks after THA and 9% re-revisions between 4 and 12 weeks. After TKA we found 9% re-revisions within 4 weeks and 17% failures after 4–12 weeks. We show no difference for DAIRs performed within 4 weeks or between 4 and 12 weeks.