Total hip arthroplasty was done in a series of fifty-seven hips with
current or prior infection. Active pyrogenic infection existed in eighteen
hips at the time of arthroplasty, in five there was probable pyogenic
sepsis, and in twenty-seven there was no current pyogenic infection but
there was good evidence of prior pyogenic infection. Seven hips had
previously been infected with tuberculosis. All but three of the eighteen
patients with active infection had a revision of a previous infected
arthroplasty. One had had a resection arthroplasty (Girdle-stone) followed
six months later by a total hip arthroplasty. The mean length of follow-up
was forty-two months. Fourteen of the eighteen reconstructions were
successful. The four that were unsuccessful had recurrent infection and
included the only two patients with gram-negative organisms. There was no
evidence of recurrence of infection in the other three groups (thirty-nine
hips).