Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a devastating complication for the patient and the health care providers. Its incidence is between 1% and 3% in primary and 4% and 6% in revision total joint arthroplasties. The diagnosis can be straightforward with purulent discharge from the joint but may also be confusing especially when associated with medical morbidities. Often infection leads to multiple operations, prolonged use of antibiotics, extensive utilization of medical resources, and substantial social, economic, or even psychological impacts on the patients, family, hospitals, physicians, and payers. It is estimated the direct medical cost for treating a PJI is 3 times to those without infection in revisions and 10 times to those with uneventful primary cases. As the demand for total joint arthroplasties is increasing globally, the knowledge and technologies for detecting, preventing, and managing PJI from different regions of the world need to be shared to provide better care to patients.

We invite investigators to contribute original as well as review articles that will cover both clinical and bench researches on the PJI. We are interested in new modalities to prevent infection, novel design of bacteria-resistant implants, improvement in diagnostic sensitivity such as using bacterial genes, experiences about using antibiotic-loaded spacers, and other strategies in treating drug-resistant strains and fungal PJI. Potential topics include, but not limited to:

• Topical antibiotics use in preventing PJI
• Different surface treatment for bacterial adhesion in newly designed implants
• Use of new modalities such as PETs, molecular amplification of bacterial genes, or other diagnostic tools in PJI
• Optimal antibiotics regimen for antibiotic-loaded spacers.
• Recent advances in one-stage or two-stage reimplantation protocols
• Evidences in managing drug-resistant strains and fungal infection

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/tswj/orthopedics/pji/ according to the following timetable: