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Background and purpose Antibiotic‐impregnated cement is used as a spacer or during re‐implantation surgery for the treatment of infected total hip arthroplasties. The routine use of antibiotic‐impregnated cement during primary or uninfected revision total hip arthroplasty remains controversial. With this meta‐analysis of the published literature, we intended to assess efficacy and safety in the use of antibiotic‐impregnated cement for uninfected arthroplasty.

Methods Following a detailed literature search, only studies reporting on the outcome of total hip replacement performed with antibiotic cement were included. Strict inclusion criteria were used and studies lacking sufficient sample size or critical data were excluded. 19 studies reporting on 36,033 hip replacements in 35,659 patients met the initial inclusion criteria. The main aim of the meta‐analysis was to determine the rate of deep infection with and without the …