Table 1.

Demographic and clinical data

	Prosthetic joint infection	Aseptic failure
No. of patients	29	58
Age (range)	70 (54–88)	70 (29–86)
No. of females	12	44
No. of males	17	14
Joint
Knee	12	29
Hip	17	29
First revision	20	39
Repeated revision	9	19
Median no. of samples retrieved (range)	6 (5–8)	6 (5–10)
Time of implant failure
Early (0–3 months]	6	0
Delayed (3–24 months)	6	19
Late (< 24 months)	17	39
Median time of prosthesis in vivo, months (range)	36 (0–213)	45 (5–270)
Median time of transport, h (range)	1:30 (0:32–18:40)	1:49 (0:40–3:29)
Median ESR (range), mm/h	80 (0–81)	3 (0–30)
Median CRP (range), mg/L	62 (15–170)	9 (0–165)
Histology: no. of patients with >5 PMN/HPF	16	4
Antimicrobial therapy before operation	8	3

ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP: C-reactive protein;

PMN: polymorphonuclear neutrophils; HPF: high-power field.