Desai A, Ramankutty S, Board T et al. Knee 2009;16:262–4.
This series of intra-articular injections of 90 knees prior to total knee arthroplasty suggests that there is a very low risk of postoperative infection.
Steroid injections into joints are a common practice in both rheumatology and orthopedic practices, and are frequently used as a component of conservative management prior to considering joint replacement. A recent report in the orthopedic literature suggested that there is a high risk of subsequent infections in total knee replacements (TKR) in which the joints had previously been injected with steroids [1].