Clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of prosthetic joint infection have been produced by a range of organizations. Guidelines stress the importance of multi-disciplinary working and of adopting a methodical approach. This includes careful assessment of the patient's surgical, medical and psychosocial problems, rational investigation, a decision-making framework for surgery and targeted, sometimes prolonged, use of intravenous or highly bioavailable oral antibiotics. Despite limited high-quality evidence, adoption of clinical guidelines can improve practice by reducing variation and by establishing conditions for the subsequent conduct of multicentre studies or systematic reviews.