This 2009 narrative review by Jacobs et al. synthesizes the available clinical literature on static versus mobile antibiotic-impregnated PMMA cement spacers used during two-stage revision for prosthetic joint infection of the knee and hip, examining infection eradication rates, reimplantation rates, implant retention, and mechanical complications across both spacer types.
When selecting a spacer for two-stage PJI revision, mobile spacers may preserve ROM and reduce interim bone loss in the knee, but in the hip they introduce a clinically significant dislocation risk (7%) absent with static designs — weigh this tradeoff explicitly for each patient, and ensure your antibiotic dose reaches the 3.6 g per 40 g cement threshold rather than relying on underdosed prefabricated spacers.
This 2009 narrative review by Jacobs et al. synthesizes the available clinical literature on static versus mobile antibiotic-impregnated PMMA cement spacers used during two-stage revision for prosthetic joint infection of the knee and hip, examining infection eradication rates, reimplantation rates, implant retention, and mechanical complications across both spacer types.
When selecting a spacer for two-stage PJI revision, mobile spacers may preserve ROM and reduce interim bone loss in the knee, but in the hip they introduce a clinically significant dislocation risk (7%) absent with static designs — weigh this tradeoff explicitly for each patient, and ensure your antibiotic dose reaches the 3.6 g per 40 g cement threshold rather than relying on underdosed prefabricated spacers.