Cefuroxime, rifampicin and pulse lavage in decontamination of allograft bone.

The risk of bacterial infection through allogenic bone transplantation is one of the major problems facing tissue banks. Different screening methods and decontamination procedures are being used to achieve a safe surgical result. The purpose of this study was to investigate the contamination rate in fresh frozen bone allografts after treating them with different decontamination methods. The allografts were contaminated by rubbing on the operating theatre floor for 60 min, after which they were rinsed either with sterile physiological saline, cefuroxime or rifampicin solution or they were washed with low-pressure pulse lavage of sterile physiological saline. Our findings show that low-pressure pulse lavage with sterile saline solution is very effective in removing bacteria from bone allograft, when compared with the antibiotic solutions tested.