Treatment strategies for advanced knee osteoarthritis with coexistent joint infection are not well established. While in periprosthetic joint infection the two-stage approach has been studied extensively, only few case reports on two-stage total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for knee osteoarthritis with coexistent joint infection have been published. The purpose of this paper was to report on our method of implementing a two-stage TKA with intervening antibiotic-loaded articulating cement spacers and a short interval between first- and second-stage procedures to treat two patients with Staphylococcus aureus-infected end-stage knee osteoarthritis. Consistent infection eradication was found at a 1-year follow-up with postoperative range of motion and knee scores comparing favourably with those of other case series. Level of evidence V.
Keywords: Knee; Septic osteoarthritis; Short interval; TKR; Total knee arthroplasty; Total knee replacement; Two-stage TKA.