A stable hinged spacer for management of prosthetic infections of the knee
Prosthetic infections of the knee are difficult to treat and may increase in incidence with the rise in knee arthroplasties in an aging population with increasing mechanical demands. Infection remains the most common mode of failure. A two stage process remains the most common way of dealing with this issue, requiring prosthesis revision with an intervening period where the joint length is maintained and infection suppressed with the use of a cement spacer. The actual function of the joint is a lower priority than the control of local sepsis, and the spacer is designed for easy removal. Typically the spacers may be crude space fulling devices.
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Darshan U. Shah, Neel M. Bhavsar, Manish R. Shah, Hemik S. Doshi, Articulating, stemmed, antibiotic-impregnated cement spacer using new real components for the treatment of prosthetic knee joint infection, Journal of Orthopaedic Reports, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2022,Pages 8-12,ISSN 2773-157X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jorep.2022.03.004
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Fei Z, Zhang Z, Wang Y, Zhang H, Xiang S. Comparing the Efficacy of Articulating Spacers in Two-Stage Revision for Periprosthetic Joint Infection Following Total Knee Arthroplasty: All-Cement Spacers vs Sterilized Replanted Metal-Polyethylene Spacers. Int J Gen Med. 2022;15:3293-3301 https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S354808