A recent study identified high-risk, post-operative joint infection groups, allowing for precautionary clinical measures to be taken. A case-control study (n= 2,212) using de-identified patient health claims information from a commercially insured US dataset representing 15 million patients annually identified risk factors for developing a post-operative infection in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty (TJA) of a large joint (total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, or total shoulder arthroplasty). Researchers identified clinical and demographic factors, including the use of high-risk medications (ie, prednisone and immunosuppressive medications) and diagnoses [ie, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), gout, obesity, and diabetes mellitus]. They found:

• Male gender, diagnosis of RA, diabetes mellitus, obesity, or gout, and a prescription for prednisone predicted a post-operative infection following TJA.
• Persons with post-operative joint infections were significantly more likely to be prescribed a uric acid reducer and anti-inflammatory drug; no significant difference was found for the use of specific disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and TNF-α inhibitors.