We report a 64 year old man who developed Candida albicans infection following total knee arthroplasty. A two-stage exchange arthroplasty was performed after an initial swab culture grew Acinobacter sp. A scanty growth of yeast was also found from the tissue culture. Intravenous cefuroxime was instituted for six weeks followed by reimplantation four months after the removal. Three weeks after that revision, the prosthesis became infected and a culture of knee aspirate established the diagnosis of Candida albicans infection. Treatment consisted of thorough debridement of the involved joint and oral fluconazole for a year. Infection was never totally resolved and a secondary infection with methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus then developed. Excision arthroplasty was done at two and a half years after the initial infection. At five years follow-up the infection was quiescent and he had a range of movement of 30 degrees to 70 degrees. Knee brace was used to control the valgus-varus stability.
Thirty-eight tibial plateau fractures were treated with open reduction and internal fixation. The fractures were classified into six groups (Hohl's 1991 Classification) and the clinical results were evaluated using the Rasmussen (1973) criteria. The average follow-up period was 2.07 years. Overall there was one excellent, thirty-four (34) good, three fair and no poor results. In three patients with less than a good score there were other associated ipsilateral injuries and delayed mobilisation of the knee joint. There was no direct association between the type of internal fixation and the end result.
The results of 109 primary total hip arthroplasties in 92 patients performed in Hospital Kuala Lumpur from January 1987 to December 1996 were reviewed after a mean follow-up of 30.8 months. There were 22 males and 70 females with the average age of 49.9 years (range 19 to 94 years). Chinese females comprised the largest group of patients (52.2%). Avascular necrosis was the most common diagnosis (33.1%) followed by hip dysplasia and primary osteoarthritis (17.4%). The procedure was performed more on the right hip (64.2%) compared to the left (35.8%). All patients received prophylactic antibiotics but none were given deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. The Charnley prosthesis was most commonly used and the majority of the arthroplasties were cemented (60.5%). About 80% of the THA were performed via the lateral approach. The functional hip score improved from an average of 8.9 to 15.0 with 66.3% of the patients categorized as good and excellent results. There were 16 patients (17.4%) with poor outcome. The most common complications encountered were dislocation (10.1%), aseptic loosening (9.2%) and periprosthetic fracture (5.5%). Other complications were deep infection (1.8%), deep vein thrombosis (0.9%), trochanteric osteotomy complications (1.8%), superficial infection (7.3%), urinary tract infection (5.5%), pressure sore (3.7%) and respiratory complication (1.8%). Fifteen hips (13.8%) required revision. The causes for revision were aseptic loosening, dislocation and infection. Technical anomalies were recognized as one of the factors contributing to poor results. Five-year survival rate was 87.3%. Better results can be expected with increasing experience and technical skulls.
Sixty-seven primary THR surgeries in 57 patients between January 1992 and December 1998 were reviewed after a mean follow-up of 35.9 months. The rate of superficial and deep wound infections were 11.9% and 1.5% respectively. The most common organism in superficial wound infection was Staphylococcus aureus. The factors that were significantly associated with superficial wound infection were diabetes mellitus (p= 0.0230) obesity (p=0.0088). The patients who developed superficial wound infection have a significantly longer duration of surgery compared to patients without infection (p=0.014). However, there was no significant difference between the mean age among patients with and without superficial wound infection (p=0.814).