Advertisement

Evaluation of implant sonication as a diagnostic tool in implant-associated infections

Abstract

Infections of implants pose a severe problem in the field of orthopedic surgery, because they can cause bone degradation with subsequent loosening of the implant. The discrimination between septic implant loosening and aseptic loosening can be a challenge, and hence novel diagnostic methods have been introduced to improve the detection of bacteria. Because a major problem is their firm adherence to implants due to biofilm formation, sonication has been introduced, followed by identification of bacteria by culture or genetic methods. In this study, we compared the results obtained after sonication pretreatment with those of microbiological testing of tissue samples and histopathological evaluation of the same tissue. Furthermore, we related the results obtained following sonication to the clinical diagnosis of septic or aseptic implant loosening, respectively. Sonication of explanted devices also enhances the likelihood of detecting bacterial growth in patients who were considered “aseptic” based on the clinical evaluation.

J Appl Biomater Funct Mater 2014; 12(3): 135 - 140

Article Type: ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

DOI:10.5301/jabfm.5000205

Authors

Ulrike Dapunt, Burkhard Lehner, Irene Burckhardt, Stefan Zimmermann, Gertrud M. Hänsch, Volker Ewerbeck

Article History

Disclosures

Financial support: This study was funded by the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

This article is available as full text PDF.

  • If you are a Subscriber, please log in now.

  • Article price: Eur 36,00
  • You will be granted access to the article for 72 hours and you will be able to download any format (PDF or ePUB). The article will be available in your login area under "My PayPerView". You will need to register a new account (unless you already own an account with this journal), and you will be guided through our online shop. Online purchases are paid by Credit Card through PayPal.
  • If you are not a Subscriber you may:
  • Subscribe to this journal
  • Unlimited access to all our archives, 24 hour a day, every day of the week.

Authors

Affiliations

  • Department for Orthopedics, Traumatology and Paraplegiology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg - Germany
  • Department for Infectious Diseases, Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg - Germany
  • Department of Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg - Germany
  • Ulrike Dapunt and Burkhard Lehner contributed equally.

Article usage statistics

The blue line displays unique views in the time frame indicated.
The yellow line displays unique downloads.
Views and downloads are counted only once per session.

No supplementary material is available for this article.