Aims: The effectiveness of the local treatment of experimental osteomyelitis by MRSA with a mixture of calcium phosphate bone cement and 3% teicoplanin into the femur of rabbits.

Methods: Thirty-six male rabbits with chronic (3 weeks) MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph. aureus) osteomyelitis of the right femur (Model of Norden CW) were treated with a new local Teicoplanin delivery system prepared by a mixture of calcium phosphate cement plus 3% teicoplanin. Osteomyelitis was introduced by inoculating 107 cfu/ml of the MRSA strain in a 2mm hole of the bone medula, placement of a needle serving as a foreign body and subsequent closure with a sterile bone wax. The follow-up of the infection was performed by clinical, microbiological, x-rays and histological findings. On the third week all animals were reoperated and the needle was removed followed by implantation of the above mixture. One control and five treated animals were sacrificed each week thereafter until the sixth week.

Results: Cultures of the treated animals were positive during the first week but turned negative after the second week, while throughout the same period cultures from the controls remain positive. Clinical and histologic studies were in accordance.

Conclusions: The above mixture could be approved as a supplementary method in the treatment of bone infections. It can be used by replacing the gentamycin polymethylmethacrylate beads whose use demands reoperation to be removed. Finally it offers the possibility to contribute to the filling of the bone gaps as it can be replaced by host bone.