Just an FYI. I need two knee replacements. I do not have a handicap placard. I can walk, but I do use wheelchairs in airports. When my plane comes in at a gate that it a 15 minute walk for healthy people, I cannot walk the distance to the next plane. I am very slow and use a cane. I do get off the plane with everybody else, but I do slow them down. My husband does try to get seats as close to the front of the plane as possible. And he always drops me off at the front of any store where we shop. I do use the electric carts at the store, if available. If not, I put my cane in the shopping cart and lean heavily on the cart as I slowly make my way around the store. I do not shop for long, but I do need to go to the grocery store every week. Yes, I have put off the replacement surgery for too long. But I am frightened as my mom suffered with a staph infection that the Dr took into her knee, when he put in the replacement. This is not uncommon, but they had to take her knee replacement out and she walked with a brace and walker for the last ten years of her life. I just wanted you all to hear from someone who is using the wheelchairs at the airports. In the end, yes I can walk. But it is very painful and I am very slow. Please be kind.
That was then. This is now: "Most surgeons will therefore accept an average rate of deep infection of between 0.25% and 1.0% at one year after primary hip replacements and between 0.4% and 2% at one year after primary knee replacements"
The 2009 paper I am looking at goes on to say that prophylactic antibiotics cut those infection rates down to practically nothing.