Long antibiotic courses, including IV and oral administrations, are utilized in prosthetic joint infection (PJI) treatment. Most researchers focus on a shorter duration of the overall antibiotic course for the treatment of PJI; however, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to emphasize the IV component of the antibiotic course. The focus on IV treatment only is due to the burden associated with it and its prolonged utilization within the US without much evidence of practice.

Culture-negative (CN) prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) present significant challenges for clinicians. While previous retrospective analyses have been conducted, inconsistencies in inclusion criteria and treatment success measures limit the opportunity for direct comparisons and use in guiding clinical practice. We compared baseline characteristics and outcomes of CN with culture-positive (CP) cases in a large multicentre prospective cohort and demonstrated improved overall outcomes in CN PJI.

In this study, we prospectively enrolled patients with a suspected diagnosis of native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) undergoing image-guided needle aspiration of the intervertebral disc. Based on this pilot study, a high manual cell count or a high neutrophilic predominance from the disc aspirate was associated with the diagnosis of NVO.