PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF MICROBIOLOGY OF BIOFILM IN ORTHOPAEDIC IMPLANT SURGERY

Background:Infection remains a major obstacle leading to implant failure, increased morbidity, and mortality. Implant-relatedinfections continue to pose a problem for orthopaedicians. In spite of the decreasing incidence of orthopaedic device-related infections to 1%, nowadays, device-related infections still remain a diagnostic, therapeutic, and cost-related problem.

Aims And Objective: To isolate and identify the Bacteriological agent forming Biofilm in orthopaedic implant infection and their antibiotic sensitivity.

Methods: In a prospective study, 100 patients who underwent orthopaedic implant removal surgery from Dec 2019 – to Sept 2021 were enrolled82 patients culture reports came out positive.

Results: Of the 100 samples, 82(82%) were culture positive, and 18(18%) were culture negative. The femur was the most commonly affected bone in both males (median age–37.1yrs) and females (median age–41.3 yrs). Pseudomonas Aeruginosa was the organism that was most commonly isolated, followed by Staphylococcus Aureus and E.coli. No anaerobes were isolated. Aggressive antibiotic therapy was often found inadequate to eliminate the infections caused by the biofilm-forming organism. Conservative surgical treatment was associated with treatment failures.

Conclusion: The most common bacteria which were isolated included Pseudomonas aeruginosa, followed by Staphylococcus aureus and E coli. A majority of them are resistant to the commonly used antibiotics, leading to treatment failures that necessitated implant removal.