Timing of preoperative antibiotics for knee arthroplasties: Improving the routines in Sweden

Background: A slight increase in revisions for infected joint arthroplasties has been observed in the Nordic countries since 2000 for which the reasons are unclear. However, in 2007 a Swedish study of the timing for prophylactic antibiotics in a random sample of knee arthroplasties found that only 57% of the patients had received the antibiotic during the optimal time interval 45-15 minutes before surgery. The purpose of the report was to evaluate the effect of measures taken to improve the timing of prophylactic antibiotics. Findings: Reporting this finding to surgeons at national meetings during 2008 the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register (SKAR) introduced a new report form from January 2009 including the time for administration of preoperative antibiotics. Furthermore, the WHO's surgical checklist was introduced during 2009 and a national project was started to reduce infections in arthroplasty surgery (PRISS). The effect of these measures was found to be positive showing that in 2009, 69% of the 12,707 primary knee arthroplasties were reported to have received the prophylaxis within the 45-15 min time interval and 79% of the first 7,000 knee arthroplasties in 2010. A survey concerning the use of the WHO checklist at Swedish hospitals showed that 73 of 75 clinics had introduced a surgical checklist. Conclusions: By registration and bringing back information to surgeons on the state of infection prophylaxis in combination with the introduction of the WHO checklist and the preventive work done by the PRISS project, the timing of preoperative prophylactic antibiotics in knee arthroplasty surgery was clearly improved.