Future surgery after revision shoulder arthroplasty: the impact of unexpected positive cultures

Nearly one-quarter of our institution's revision shoulder arthroplasties had UPCs. The patients without UPCs had a nonsignificantly higher risk of reoperation compared with those with UPCs. We did not identify clinical or demographic variables that independently correlated with reoperation. Further study will be necessary to determine the true clinical benefit of routine culture acquisition in cases with low suspicion for prosthetic joint infection.