Routine Use of Antibiotic Laden Bone Cement for Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty: Impact on Infecting Microbial Patterns and Resistance Profiles

Antibiotic-laden bone cement (ALBC) is used in primary arthroplasties throughout Europe. In North America, ALBC is only FDA approved for revision arthroplasty after periprosthetic joint infection (PJI). No article has evaluated whether infecting microbial profile and resistance has changed with the introduction of ALBC. We hypothesized that prophylactic use of ALBC in primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has not had a significant impact on infecting pathogens, and antibiotic resistance profiles. A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted of all PJI patients undergoing primary TKA and total hip arthroplasty (THA) between January 2000 and January 2009. No significant change in the patterns of infecting PJI pathogens, and no notable increase in percentage resistance was found among organisms grown from patients with PJI that had received prophylactic antibiotic-loaded cement in their primary joint arthroplasty. Early findings suggest that routine prophylactic use of ALBC has not led to changes in infecting pathogen profile, nor has led to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance at our institution.