The role of intraoperative antibiotic irrigation and postoperative antibiotic therapy for contaminated implantable prosthesis: in a rat model in vivo

The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of intraoperative ant ibiotic irrigation solution and long-term effective antibiotic therapy for the infected prostheses. Forty-five male Wistar albino rats were divided into three equal groups and a small piece of silicone prosthesis contaminated with Staphylococcus epid ermidis was implanted into the scrotum. In the first group, the silicone pi eces were irrigated with an antibiotic solution intraoperatively and antibi otic therapy was applied for 20 days postoperatively. The second group unde rwent only antibiotic therapy. In the third group (control) neither intraop erative irrigation nor postoperative antibiotic therapy was applied. Postop erative clinical infection was determined as follow-up. All implants were e xtracted 20 days after the implantation and cultured to observe the bacteri al growth. In the first group, in 13 rats the cultures were negative and in two rats, the cultures revealed positive bacterial growth. In the second group, in fo ur rats the cultures were negative, in five rats the cultures were positive and six rats revealed infectious findings. In the third group, 13 rats rev ealed infectious findings, and in the remaining two rats the cultures were positive. The differences between three groups are statistically significan t (P < 0.05). We conclude that intraoperative antibiotic irrigation and postoperative ant ibiotic therapy are highly beneficial in the infected prosthesis surgery.