Abstracted/indexed

We report the treatment of bone infection in a patient with a rare disease which causes overgrowth of the limb. Careful assessment of the scans showed that the infection was in some new bone which had formed in the soft tissues after a minor injury to the leg and not in one of the major bones. This made treatment much easier with a successful outcome.

In order to monitor pin site infections, facilitate communication between team members, and assist treatment decision-making, we aimed to develop a registration tool. The present pilot study evaluates the feasibility of a prospective registration procedure for reporting, evaluating, and monitoring of pin site infections in 39 trauma, limb deformity, and bone infection patients with external ring fixation.

Bacterial biofilm infections of artificial knees are treated by mixing antibiotics into bone cement and calcium sulfate beads. We designed a knee size model to show that cement alone killed biofilms on orthopedic materials and prevented their spread close to the cement, but adding beads significantly killed biofilms further away. The model is useful in helping show how both the spread and the amount of antibiotic carrier can kill biofilms that might be in different places in the joint.

Deep periprosthetic joint infection following knee replacement is a serious complication feared by surgeons. Our aim was to investigate if seasonality of deep infection incidence exists in a national registry of knee replacement patients. We extracted data from over 100 000 procedures, investigating if patients operated on during the summer had increased risk of re-operation due to infection. We found no signal of periodicity, meaning the summer season is not a risk factor for deep infection.

This case highlights clinical and laboratory diagnostic challenges encountered with mycobacterial osteoarticular infections. Specifically, we focus on a rare complication of prosthetic joint infection following BCG therapy for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. We emphasize awareness of host risk factors to encourage consideration of mycobacteria in the relevant context.

To evaluate bone and tissue concentrations following intraosseous vancomycin administration, eight pigs were injected with 500 mg vancomycin into the tibia followed by a 12 h sampling period. This provided high concentrations in the tibia bone nearby the injection site the entire period, though with a wide range of peak concentration. The systemic absorption was high and immediate, thus mirroring an intravenous administration. Low mean concentrations were found in adjacent tissue compartments.

Literature reporting on the effectiveness of DAIR (debridement, antibiotics and implant retention) procedures performed after a one- or two-stage revision because of a prosthetic joint infection (PJI-related revision arthroplasty) is scarce. Infection control rates of a DAIR procedure after primary arthroplasty (n = 51) and after prior PJI-related revision arthroplasty (n = 16) were 69 % and 56 %, respectively. No statistically significant difference is found in infection control after 1 year.

A plausible cause of persistent infection after septic hip revision may be the presence of nonviable osteomyelitic bone. We present our initial experience in hip revision for chronic infection in which fluorescent tetracycline bone labeling was used as an additional aid to provide a visual index of surgical bone debridement. In the present series, the use of this technique successfully aided the surgeon to detect the presence of nonviable bone.

We compared the outcome of bioactive glass S53P4 as bone substitute versus autologous bone grafts for filling defects in patients with infected non-union. Our comparison of the outcomes revealed no significant differences between the groups with respect to recurrence of infection, bone healing, full weight bearing, or complications in general. Our results are promising. BAG seems to be an appropriate bone substitute. Further studies with larger numbers of patients are required.