Potential clinical role of 18F FDG-PET/CT in detecting hip prosthesis infection: a study in patients undergoing two-stage revision arthroplasty with an interim spacer.

FDG-PET/CT is highly sensitive to detect latent infections in prosthetic hips and in interim hip spacers. The high negative predictive value of PET/CT scans is useful to rule out infections in patients with persistently elevated CRP levels. PET/CT might serve as an auxiliary tool to exclude latent infections in patients posing a clinical diagnostic dilemma.