ReviewCureus2025
Skin Temperature Change Following Infected and Non-infected Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Prosthetic Joint Infection Caused byInfection and drug resistance · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a common and growing surgical intervention for end-stage knee osteoarthritis. Postoperative changes in skin temperature (ΔST) over the operated knee are well recognised, yet their clinical relevance, particularly as a potential marker for periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), remains uncertain. This systematic review aimed to define the pattern of skin temperature change following TKA and assess its potential utility in detecting PJI. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Database up to April 2025, adhering to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Eleven studies were included, covering a total of 1,212 patients. Inclusion criteria required objective ΔST measurements of the anterior knee in adults (≥18 years) with at least six months of follow-up. Studies on both uncomplicated TKA and TKA complicated by PJI were analysed narratively. All non-infected cases demonstrated a marked rise in ΔST over the operated knee, peaking within the first week postoperatively with a weighted mean of 3.42°C, followed by a progressive decline to 0.9°C at six months and 0.48°C at one year. In contrast, PJI cases (n=25, conservatively managed) exhibited greater and more persistent ΔST elevations, particularly within the early postoperative period. At one week post-TKA, the infected group had a mean ΔST 0.78°C higher than the non-infected cohort. Patients undergoing revision for PJI (n=3) showed extreme elevations exceeding 4°C, sustained through the first three months postoperatively. Skin temperature over the knee typically follows a predictable decline after TKA in uncomplicated cases. While elevated or prolonged ΔST may indicate infection, current evidence (limited by heterogeneous methods and small sample sizes) does not support ΔST as a standalone diagnostic marker for PJI. Further large-scale, standardised studies are required to explore its role in early infection detection.
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Registered trials
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