Radionuclide bone imaging as a means of differentiating loosening and infection in patients with a painful total hip prosthesis.

Twenty patients with 23 painful total hip prostheses were examined by radionuclide imaging (20 cases), arthrography (11 cases), needle aspiration (9 cases), and surgery (19 cases) for the purpose of assessing loosening and/or infection. Bone imaging was most accurate, showing three main distributions of activity: (a) ectopic calcification, (b) focal increased activity at the upper and lower ends of the femoral prosthesis, and (c) diffuse activity. These findings suggest that infection and loosening can be differentiated in many instances. None of the patients with focal activity had infection, compared to 2 of the 3 patients with diffuse uptake.