Two-round Delphi survey of 159 international experts (orthopedic surgeons, infectious disease specialists, clinical researchers) from 17 countries, asking: what criteria must be met — and at what timepoints — to call PJI treatment a success? Prior definitions were inconsistent and unidimensional, preventing meaningful comparison across studies.
When reading or designing PJI outcome studies, apply all three criteria simultaneously — infection control alone is insufficient if the patient required re-revision or died of sepsis.
Anchor follow-up to reimplantation (not the original arthroplasty), and flag any study reporting 'success' at less than 2 years as methodologically insufficient by this consensus standard.
Two-round Delphi survey of 159 international experts (orthopedic surgeons, infectious disease specialists, clinical researchers) from 17 countries, asking: what criteria must be met — and at what timepoints — to call PJI treatment a success? Prior definitions were inconsistent and unidimensional, preventing meaningful comparison across studies.
When reading or designing PJI outcome studies, apply all three criteria simultaneously — infection control alone is insufficient if the patient required re-revision or died of sepsis.
Anchor follow-up to reimplantation (not the original arthroplasty), and flag any study reporting 'success' at less than 2 years as methodologically insufficient by this consensus standard.