George MD, et al. - Via a retrospective cohort study which used US Medicare and Truven MarketScan administrative data from January 2006 to September 2015 and assessed adults with rheumatoid arthritis who received intravenous abatacept within 6 months of elective primary or revision hip or knee arthroplasty, the researchers discovered whether withholding abatacept infusions were correlated with lower risk of adverse postoperative results. There were 175 hospitalized infections, 115 nonurinary hospitalized infections, 39 prosthetic joint infections (PJIs), and 114/1,815 30-day readmissions, following 1,939 surgeries among 1,780 subjects. No significant variations in results with abatacept stop timing <4 weeks vs 4–8 weeks could be found. Furthermore, no meaningful variations in outcomes with abatacept stop timing <4 weeks vs ≥8 weeks were observed. Glucocorticoid use >7.5 mg/day was correlated with a bigger risk of hospitalized infection and nonurinary hospitalized infection. Hence, withholding abatacept for ≥4 weeks (one dosing interval) prior to surgery was not correlated with a lower risk of hospitalized infection, nonurinary hospitalized infection, PJI, or 30-day readmission, in comparison to maintaining intravenous abatacept.