CAN WE ESTABLISH A GLOBAL DATABASE FOR STUDY OF INFECTION AFTER TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY? A PROPOSAL FOR THE DATABASE STRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE

Deep infection after THA is a devastating complication that implies major suffering for the patients and large costs for society. Reports from multiple national and regional registries show increasing incidence of deep infection. Is this a consequence of improved diagnostics, changed virulence of the causative organism, increased co-morbidity of the patients? An open database will be setup and hosted by an existing, high quality registry. All possible variables including patient demographic, detailed surgical information, bacteria/fungus characteristics, antibiotic treatment, radiographic findings and follow-up for 3 years will be collected. The incoming data will be displayed on a dashboard with continuous analyses and statistics. Any individual surgeon or hospital can report data. A board with members from the International Hip Society and the International Society of Arthroplasty Registries will supervise the process and facilitate scientific analyses from collected data.