Can UV-C Air Decontamination Cut Periprosthetic Joint Infection?

Can an air decontamination system effectively reduce periprosthetic joint infections (PJI) by attacking airborne bacterial onslaughts?

A team of Tennessee-based researchers designed a retrospective observational study to try to answer that question.

Their study, “The Impact of Supplemental Intraoperative Air Decontamination on the Outcome of Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Pilot Analysis,” appears in the December 7, 2018 edition of The Journal of Arthroplasty.

Co-author Charles Edmiston, Jr., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin and Professor, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, told OTW, “We undertook this work because of our institutional concern for reducing the risk of total joint infection which is responsible for significant patient morbidity and potential mortality in high risk patients.”

The study included 496 patients who underwent total joint arthroplasty between January 2016 and August 2017. The authors wrote, “All perioperative and postoperative care protocols were identical for both groups, only study variable was that in 231 arthroplasty patients, an innovative supplemental UV-C air decontamination technology was used, whereas in the remaining 265 patients, arthroplasty was performed with standard turbulent (HVAC)…The rate of PJI was documented to be 1.9% in the turbulent air group, and no infections were documented in the cohorts operated under UV-C air decontamination, which was statistically significant.”

Dr. Edmiston told OTW, “These preliminary pilot findings suggest that by reducing the airborne microbial burden during arthroplasty one may see a reduced risk of periprosthetic joint infections (PJI). Intraoperative airborne microbial contamination may pose a contributory risk for PJI.”

“Reducing the microbial airborne burden in the operating room through use of an innovative UV-C technology may well lead to improved patient outcome (reduced risk of PJI).”