Introduction: In orthopedic surgery, infections can cause very destructive outcomes. Patients are hospitalized for a long time, are exposed to antibiotics and revision surgeries. This can lead to additional morbidity and even mortality.

Materials and Methods: In this study, a total of 65 patients, with planned hip and knee arthroplasty in our clinic between 2014 and 2015, were evaluated prospectively to investigate the relationship between nasal Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus) carriage and surgical site infection.

Results: Of the patients, 47 (77%) were female and 14 (23%) were male, and the mean age was 68.4±15.1 years (range= 28-95 years). Total hip replacements were performed in 16 (26.2%) patients, total knee replacement in 27 (44.3%) patients and partial hip replacement in 18 (29.5%) patients. Eight (13.1%) of the patients were nasal S. aureus carriers, and 53 (86.9%) patients had normal nasal flora or coagulase negative staphylococci. Nine (14.8%) patients developed surgical site infection. Three of 8 nasal S. aureus carriers were found to have carriage-associated surgical site infection, and this was statistically significant.

Conclusion: It is known that nasal S. aureus carriage may differ in patients living in different geographical regions. We also assessed the association between nasal S. aureus carriage and surgical site infection in our cases. We believe that this is a significant study regarding the relationship between nasal S. aureus carriage and periprosthetic infection in the patient population we serve..