Systemic antibiotic therapy does not significantly improve outcome in a rat model of implant-associated osteomyelitis induced by Methicillin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus.

Introduction: Treatment of implant-associated osteomyelitis regularly involves the use of systemic antibiotics in addition to surgical intervention. However, it remains unclear if perioperative systemic application of bactericide substances can improve overall outcome in models of severe intramedullary infection. The present study investigated the use of systemic gentamicin in addition to a controlled local release from a highly lipophilic gentamicinpalmitate compound while the previous study showed efficacy of sole antibiotic implant-coating.

Coating with a novel gentamicinpalmitate formulation prevents implant-associated osteomyelitis induced by methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in a rat model.

Purpose: Implant-associated osteomyelitis still represents a demanding challenge due to unfavourable biological conditions, bacterial properties and incremental resistance to antibiotic treatment. Therefore different bactericide or bacteriostatic implant coatings have been developed recently to control local intramedullary infections. Controlled local release of gentamicin base from a highly lipophilic gentamicin palmitate compound achieves extended intramedullary retention times and thus may improve its bactericide effect.