摘要Objective:To review the literature with the aim of answering the following three questions:1) Is screening and decolonization effective in reducing the rate of infection after elective joint arthroplasty?2)Is screening and decolonization cost-effective?3)What is the durability of decolonization? Methods:The search engines wereMedLine(PubMed),GoogleScholar and theCochraneLibrary. The keywords used were: preoperativeMRSA screening.Seven thousand nine hundred and forty eight articles were found until30September2014(seven thousand eight hundred and fifty inGoogleScholar, ninety-seven inMedLine and one in theCochraneLibrary).Of those, only eighteen were selected and reviewed because they were strictly focused on the question of this article. Results:The types of studies reported have a low level of evidence.Most of them are prospective case series, although some of them are systematic reviews of levelIII studies.There is a tendency toward fewerMRSA infections after elective joint arthroplasty.Decolonization has shown to be strongly cost-effective with33% of postoperative arthroplasty patients tests positive for Staphylococcus aureus colonization at3 to30 months after surgery. Conclusions:There is a tendency toward fewerMRSA infections after total joint arthroplasty when screening and decolonization is used.Decolonization is strongly cost-effective procedure with33% of patients tests positive forMRSA3 to30 months after surgery.Larger, randomized, controlled studies are needed to confirm the apparent efficacy of decolonization.