Acute kidney injury following prophylactic flucloxacillin and gentamicin in primary hip and knee arthroplasty

Abstract

Background

Following concerns regarding the emergence of Clostridium difficile infection in 2010, we changed antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing primary hip and knee arthroplasty from cefuroxime to flucloxacillin and single-dose (SD) gentamicin. A subsequent perceived increase in the incidence of post-operative acute kidney injury (AKI) led us to evaluate the AKI incidence between different prophylactic antibiotic regimes used at our centre.

Methods

We examined the incidence of AKI as defined by Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria in 1588 patients undergoing primary hip or knee arthroplasty from January 2010 to January 2015. Patients received the following prophylactic antibiotic regimes: 8 g flucloxacillin in four divided doses and SD gentamicin 1.5 mg/kg ideal body weight (IBW; maximum dose 120 mg; n = 400), 8 g flucloxacillin alone in four divided doses ( n = 400), SD cefuroxime ( n = 400), triple-dose (TD) cefuroxime ( n = 188) and teicoplanin with SD gentamicin 1.5 mg/kg IBW ( n = 200).

Results

The incidence of AKI was as follows: flucloxacillin and gentamicin (13%); flucloxacillin alone (8.5%); SD cefuroxime (2%); TD cefuroxime (0.5%); and teicoplanin and gentamicin (3%). Of the six patients who developed Stage 3 AKI, all were in the flucloxacillin and gentamicin group. The odds ratio for the development of AKI derived from a binary logistic regression model was highest in the flucloxacillin and gentamicin group [7.79 (95% confidence interval 3.54–17.14), P < 0.0001].

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the use of prophylactic high-dose flucloxacillin and gentamicin should be used with caution in patients undergoing primary hip or knee arthroplasty without a clear advantage in reducing surgical site infections given the association with increased rates of AKI.