By Per Kjaersgaard-Andersen, Secretary General, EFORT.
A group of over 400 orthopaedic surgeons from world wide, mostly USA, with interest in periprosthetic joint infections meet at the end of July 2013 in Philadelphia for two days to create a consensus statement on the topic.
Under the leadership of Thorsten Gehrke, Germany and Javad Parvizi, USA – the group initially went over the literature and assembled a preliminary draft of the consensus statement, followed by an active discussions and voting on the questions/consensus statements. The finalized consensus is based on a voting process conducted using electronic keypads, where one could agree with the consensus statement, disagree with the consensus statement, or abstain from voting. The strength of the consensus was judged by the following scale: 1) Simple Majority: No Consensus (50.1-59% agreement), 2) Majority: Weak Consensus (60-65% agreement), 3) Super Majority: Strong Consensus (66-99% agreement) and 4) Unanimous: 100% agreement. Of the 207 questions, there was unanimous vote for one question (controlling OR traffic), 202 questions received super majority (strong consensus), two questions had weak consensus, and only two questions did not achieve any consensus.
The document presented here is the result of innumerable hours of work by the liaisons, leaders and delegates dedicated to this historic initiative. The information conveyed in this document is based on evidence, whenever present, or is the result of cumulative wisdom of over 400 of world’s experts in musculoskeletal infection from 58 countries.
The EFORT Board have read the Consensus Statement with great interest, and find it of great importance to link it into our webside so our members can have access and get inspired in their daily judgement and treatment of patients with periprosthetic joint infection.
Full report: Proceedings of the International Consensus Meeting on Periprosthetic Joint Infection (PDF document, 364 pages, 2.59 MB)
