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 antibiotic 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 epidermidis was implanted into the scrotum. In the first group, the silicone pieces were irrigated with an antibiotic solution intraoperatively and antibiotic therapy was applied for 20 days postoperatively. The second group underwent only antibiotic therapy. In the third group (control) neither intraoperative irrigation nor postoperative antibiotic therapy was applied. Postoperative clinical infection was determined as follow-up. All implants were extracted 20 days after the implantation and cultured to observe the bacterial 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 four rats the cultures were negative, in five rats the cultures were positive and six rats revealed infectious findings. In the third group, 13 rats revealed infectious findings, and in the remaining two rats the cultures were positive. The differences between three groups are statistically significant (P < 0.05). We conclude that intraoperative antibiotic irrigation and postoperative antibiotic therapy are highly beneficial in the infected prosthesis surgery.