This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Corticosteroid injections within 4 weeks of knee arthroscopy linked with increased infection rate
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
According to recently published results, there was a significant correlation between intra-articular corticosteroid injections within 4 weeks of surgery and an increased risk of infection in private payer and Medicare patients after knee arthroscopy compared with patients who received steroid injections more than 4 weeks postoperatively and those who did not receive injections.
“Steroid injections should be avoided in the immediate 4 weeks following knee arthroscopy,” Brian C. Werner, MD, told Healio.com/Orthopedics. “Patients with pain and swelling in that time period should have a workup for other causes such as infection, and if negative, managed with conservative treatments other than injections."
Researchers used private payer and Medicare national insurance databases to identify 5,533 patients who underwent arthroscopic knee procedures. Of these patients, 725 received an ipsilateral corticosteroid injection within 2 weeks; 1,236 had the injection within 4 weeks; 1,716 had the injection within 6 weeks and 1,856 had the injection within 8 weeks postoperatively. ICD and CPT coding was used to assess postoperative infection within 90 days after the injection.
Results showed the infection rate was significantly higher in patients who received a corticosteroid injection at 2 weeks compared with patients who received an injection at 6 and 8 weeks postoperatively (3.5% vs. 0.7% vs 0.3%, respectively). The infection rate was higher in patients who received a corticosteroid infection at 4 weeks compared with 6 and 8 weeks (2.1% vs. 0.7% vs. 0.3%, respectively). No difference was seen in the infection rates between patients who received an injection at 2 weeks and 4 weeks. – by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosures: Warner reports grants and non-financial support from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine as a board or committee member and has received research support from Arthrex, Biomet and Integra LifeScience. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts