Comparative of Infection Rate in Non-Elective and Elective Surgery, and Its Relation on Quality of Life

Objectives: To study infection rates in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty, comparing elective surgery against intervention due to hip fracture (non-elective), and being related to the quality of life of them, comparing infection sample versus uninfected one.Methods: Longitudinal prospective study of 104 patients older than 65 years who underwent hip replacement between October 2008 and March 2010, in "Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia".The EuroQol-5D was used for clinical assessment.Results: The infection rate was 2.88% at 6 months follow-up (3 elective surgery infections and no one infection in hip fracture), decreasing the prevalent infection rate to 0% at 12 months.Total hip arthroplasty intervention means an increase quality of life of 0.452 in the patients studied.Conclusion: Lower quality of life figures in patients undergoing surgery due to hip fracture (-0.1685) compared to osteoarthritis (0.5729) (p <0.001) are obtained.Postoperative quality of life scores are similar between infected and uninfected sample (0.898 and 0.791 respectively) but health and economic impact of hip joint replacement infections are important.