The application of antibiotic bonding to the treatment of established vascular prosthetic infection.

We used surfactant-mediated antibiotic bonding to treat established vascular prosthetic infections in an animal model. The infrarenal aorta of dogs was replaced with a polytef (PTFE) graft locally contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. Infected grafts were then replaced with control polytef or polytef bonded with benzylkonium chloride and penicillin G tagged with radioactive carbon, or polytef bonded with tridodecylmethylammonium chloride and penicillin G tagged with radioactive carbon. Both types of antibiotic-bonded grafts had significantly fewer infections than control grafts did. The labeled penicillin G remained bound to both groups of antibiotic-bonded grafts for at least three weeks. In a second group of studies, surfactant-treated polytef adsorbed parenterally administered labeled penicillin G in highly significant concentrations compared with control grafts. These studies suggest the possibility that human vascular prosthetic infection may be treated with an antibiotic-bonded graft.