Diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection by beadmill processing of a periprosthetic specimen

We report a microbiological process for the documentation of prosthetic joint infection (PJI). Intraoperative periprosthetic tissue samples from 92 consecutive patients undergoing revision surgery for PJI were submitted to mechanized beadmill processing: specimens were aseptically collected in polypropylene vials, filled with sterile water and glass beads and submitted to mechanized agitation with a beadmill. The documentation rate of PJI following culture on solid and liquid media was 83.7% and the contamination rate 8.7%. Final documentation was obtained after overnight culture for 51.9% of cases and with 7 days of broth culture for all documented cases.