The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Sep 2012
Review Meta Analysis Comparative StudyUtility of intraoperative frozen section histopathology in the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The accuracy of intraoperative periprosthetic frozen section histologic evaluation in predicting a diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection prior to microbiologic culture results is unknown. ⋯ Intraoperative frozen sections of periprosthetic tissues performed well in predicting a diagnosis of culture-positive periprosthetic joint infection but had moderate accuracy in ruling out this diagnosis. Frozen section histopathology should therefore be considered a valuable part of the diagnostic work-up for patients undergoing revision arthroplasty, especially when the potential for infection remains after a thorough preoperative evaluation. The optimum diagnostic threshold (number of PMNs per high-power field) required to distinguish periprosthetic joint infection from aseptic failure could not be discerned from the included studies. There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracy of frozen section histopathology utilizing the most common thresholds of five or ten PMNs per high-power field.