Real-component vs All-cement Articulating Spacers for Periprosthetic Knee Infection

Study Purpose

In the US, if you get an infection in your artificial knee joint that doesn't heal with antibiotics alone, the standard treatment is a two-stage revision of the artificial knee. In the first stage, your surgeon will remove your artificial knee and clean out the area around the knee. They will then place an antibiotic spacer. An antibiotic spacer is a type of artificial joint that will release antibiotics in to the knee space continuously over time. The spacer allows only very basic function of the knee. You may need to use crutches or a walker while the antibiotic spacer is in place. After surgery to place the antibiotic spacer, your surgeon may prescribe a course of antibiotics as well. Because the antibiotic spacer is not as durable as a regular artificial joint, after the infection is gone, another surgery is required to take the spacer out and put a new artificial knee joint in. There is another way for artificial joint infections to be treated. This is a one-stage revision. In this treatment, the surgeon will remove your artificial knee and clean out the area around the knee. Then they will place a new artificial knee in using a special kind of cement that contains antibiotics. The cement will release antibiotics in to the knee space continuously over time (your surgeon may prescribe a course of antibiotics as well). The new artificial joint with antibiotic cement will function almost the same as your original artificial knee. This means that while the infection is healing you will be able to do most of your regular daily activities. However, the antibiotic cement is not as durable as what is normally used to implant an artificial knee. The artificial knee with the antibiotic cement may need to be replaced with a regular artificial knee. When replacement will need to be done is dependent on your weight, bone strength and activity level, among other things. When it is time to replace the antibiotic cement artificial knee, you will have another surgery where the surgeon will take the antibiotic cement artificial knee and but a new artificial knee joint in. We know that both the one- and two-stage revision work equally well to heal the infection, but we don't know which patients prefer or which provides better function after many years. This study will randomly assign patients to receive either a one-stage or two-stage revision and then follow them for 5 years to ask them about pain, function, and satisfaction.

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms	No
Study Type An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes. An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes. Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.	Interventional
Eligible Ages	18 Years and Over
Gender	All

More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

- Patients diagnosed with a chronic periprosthetic joint infection after a primary total knee arthroplasty with plan for explant and placement of an antibiotic spacer.

- PJI defined according to Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) 2018 Consensus Criteria.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Patients who are unable to consent.

- Infection at site of revision TKA.

- Soft tissue envelope compromise.

- Allergies to study materials (cement, vancomycin, tobramycin) - Incompetent extensor mechanism.

- Extensive bone loss.

Randomization-specific exclusion criteria.

- Extensive soft tissue defect.

- Extensor mechanism compromise

Trial Details

Trial ID: This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.	NCT06293352
Phase Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans. Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data. Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs. Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.	N/A
Lead Sponsor The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.	Northwestern University
Principal Investigator The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.	Adam I Edelstein, MD
Principal Investigator Affiliation	Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Agency Class Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.	Other
Overall Status	Not yet recruiting
Countries	United States
Conditions The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.	Prosthetic-joint Infection, Knee Infection, Arthroplasty Complications, Joint Infection, Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee

Additional Details

This study compares to currently used treatments for chronic peri-prosthetic joint infections: Treatment with an all-cement articulating spacer and treatment with a durable, real-component articulating spacer. An all-cement articulating spacer will be defined as follows: An articulating spacer with a tibial and femoral component made of cement using molds, that are cemented in place; use of high-dose antibiotic cement (at least 2g/batch, including vancomycin and tobramycin); use of dowels at discretion of surgeon; 6 weeks IV antibiotics; intent to reimplant definitive prosthesis if infection eradicated. A durable, real-component articulating spacer will be defined as follows: Uses metal (or ceramicized metal) on plastic for bearing surface; use of high-dose antibiotic cement (at least 2g/batch, including vancomycin and tobramycin); no cones/sleeves, no pressurized cement in canal; use of stems/dowels/augments and level of constraint at discretion of surgeon; 6 weeks IV antibiotics; intent to leave in situ indefinitely/until clinical failure. This will be a study with 2 cohorts. We will have a randomized cohort, as well as a nonrandomized prospective observational cohort. Surgery will be performed by current treatment guidelines in the same manner as if the patient was not in a research study. All questionnaires will be administered via iPad/online. The questionnaires administered at the preoperative appointment will consist preoperative patient-reported outcomes (PROs). The preoperative PROs will be determined utilizing PROMIS questionnaires including PROMI-10 Survey and the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS-12), In addition, patient demographic characteristics will be collected including age, sex, race, education and insurance status as well as self-reported comorbidity data. The questionnaires will be administered again at the 6-week and 6-month, 12-month, and 24- month postoperative time points. In addition, the PROMIS depression scale will be collected at 6 weeks. The presence and absence any complications, along with complication severity as determined by the PI, during the procedure or during recovery will be extracted from the EMR by the PI and/or Co-investigator after surgery and after every postoperative visit through the 24-month visit.

Arms & Interventions

Arms

Active Comparator: All-cement articulating spacer

An articulating spacer with a tibial and femoral component made of cement using molds, that are cemented in place; use of highdose antibiotic cement (at least 2g/batch, including vancomycin and tobramycin); use of dowels at discretion of surgeon; 6 weeks IV antibiotics; intent to reimplant definitive prosthesis if infection eradicated.

Active Comparator: Durable, real-component articulating spacer

Uses metal (or ceramicized metal) on plastic for bearing surface; use of high-dose antibiotic cement (at least 2g/batch, including vancomycin and tobramycin); no cones/sleeves, no pressurized cement in canal; use of stems/dowels/augments and level of constraint at discretion of surgeon; 6 weeks IV antibiotics; intent to leave in situ indefinitely/until clinical failure.

Other: Observation

Patients who do not wish to be randomized or who meet the randomization-specific exclusion criteria will be offered enrolment into the non-randomized, prospective observational arm of the study. The participant and their surgeon will collaboratively decide which of the 2 treatments the participant will receive.

Interventions

Device: - All-cement articulating spacer

Two-stage intervention

Device: - Durable, real-component articulating spacer

Single stage intervention

Device: - Rigid Spacer

Observation intervention

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.

Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Status

Address

Northwestern Medicine

Chicago, Illinois, 60611

Site Contact

Orthopaedic Surgery Research

[email protected]

312-695-0332

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