Infection of implants is a major problem in elective and trauma surgery. Heating is an effective way to reduce the bacterial load in food preparation, and studies on hyperthermia treatment for cancer have shown that it is possible to heat metal objects with pulsed electromagnetic fields selectively (PEMF), also known as induction heating. We therefore set out to answer the following research question: is non-contact induction heating of metallic implants effective in reducing bacterial load Titanium alloy cylinders (Ti6Al4V) were exposed to PEMF from an induction heater with maximum 2000 watts at 27 kHz after being contaminated with five different types of micro-organisms: Objectives
Methods
Implant-related infection is one of the most devastating complications in orthopaedic surgery. Many surface and/or material modifications have been developed in order to minimise this problem; however, most of the We describe a method for the study of bacterial adherence in the presence of preosteoblastic cells. For this purpose we mixed different concentrations of bacterial cells from collection and clinical strains of staphylococci isolated from implant-related infections with preosteoblastic cells, and analysed the minimal concentration of bacteria able to colonise the surface of the material with image analysis.Objectives
Methods
We have designed a prospective study to evaluate
the usefulness of prolonged incubation of cultures from sonicated
orthopaedic implants. During the study period 124 implants from
113 patients were processed (22 osteosynthetic implants, 46 hip
prostheses, 54 knee prostheses, and two shoulder prostheses). Of
these, 70 patients had clinical infection; 32 had received antibiotics
at least seven days before removal of the implant. A total of 54 patients
had sonicated samples that produced positive cultures (including
four patients without infection). All of them were positive in the
first seven days of incubation. No differences were found regarding
previous antibiotic treatment when analysing colony counts or days
of incubation in the case of a positive result. In our experience, extending
incubation of the samples to 14 days does not add more positive
results for sonicated orthopaedic implants (hip and knee prosthesis
and osteosynthesis implants) compared with a conventional seven-day incubation
period. Cite this article:
To review the current best surgical practice and detail a multi-disciplinary
approach that could further reduce joint replacement infection. Review of relevant literature indexed in PubMed.Objectives
Methods
