477 posters, 14 topics, 2,052 authors, 1,056 institutions
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The Joint EBJIS-MSIS 2026 Conference
17 - 19 September, 2026 | Porto, Portugal
EP186
Healthcare utilisation and inpatient cost of periprosthetic joint infection: a national cohort analysis from Ireland
Poster Presenter
Part of Topic
Miscellaneous
Healthcare utilisation and inpatient cost of periprosthetic joint infection: a national cohort analysis from Ireland
•Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is among the most costly complications of arthroplasty, yet national data describing its healthcare burden remain limited.
•We quantified healthcare utilisation, hospital costs and predictors of resource use using the National Quality Assurance and Improvement System (NQAIS) [1].
National burden:
•Between 2018 – 2024 there were a total of 2,950 inpatient episodes of PJI.
•Median age was 71 years (interquartile range [IQR] 15 years), and 57% were male.
•Median LOS was 14 days (IQR 5–27 days), accounting for 68,592 bed-days nationally.
•Critical care admission occurred in 14% of cases, with a median LOS of two days.
•Obesity and smoking were independently associated with an increased odds of critical care admission.
•30-day readmission occurred in 10.4%, most commonly due to recurrent infection (57%).
•
Cost analysis:
•Between 2022 - 2024, 1,488 episodes analysed for cost.
•Total inpatient expenditure was €37 million, with a mean cost per episode of €24,889 (standard deviation €29,678).
•The mean cost per inpatient day was €1,099.
•Critical care admission, CKD and obesity independently predicted longer hospital stay
•Hospital costs increased with longer length of stay. Severe comorbidity (β €20,981, p<0.001) and emergency admission (β €6,305, p<0.001) were the strongest independent predictors of increased cost.
•PJI imposes a substantial burden on Irish public hospitals, accounting for 68,592 inpatient bed-days (9,799 annually) and an average of €12.3 million in direct inpatient expenditure per year, excluding outpatient care, outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), rehabilitation and community-delivered services.
•Severe comorbidity and emergency admission were the strongest independent predictors of increased inpatient cost, while critical-care admission, chronic kidney disease and obesity independently predicted prolonged hospitalisation.
•These findings provide the first national benchmark of healthcare utilisation and inpatient costs associated with PJI in Ireland and establish a contemporary reference for future clinical, economic and health services research.