Management of contaminated bone grafts.

Using an experimental animal model, the infection rate of contaminated bone grafts after irrigation with either normal saline, povidone-iodine, or a cefazolin solution was evaluated. Mechanical cleansing appears to be the important factor in preventing infection in these grafts, since all the solutions showed almost equal effectiveness. As the amount of bulk and dead space increases, particularly in Pseudomonas infections, povidone-iodine might be slightly superior, although this difference was not statistically significant.