With increasing public emphasis on surgical site infection prevention and specific quality measures, this symposium begins with Lister’s classic article “On the Antiseptic Principal in the Practice of Surgery” and a biographical sketch of the surgeon-scientist, Joseph, Baron Lister.
Eight of the 14 papers address our ongoing difficulty diagnosing and treating periprosthetic joint infections, including: synovial fluid biomarkers for periprosthetic infection; success rates of irrigation and débridement with prosthetic retention; two-stage retention débridement protocol for an acute periprosthetic infection; outcome and risk factors of culture negative prosthetic joint infections; predictors of success in revision total hip arthroplasty; two articles presenting the predictors of success in revision total knee arthroplasty; and outcomes of revision total knee arthroplasty after methicillin resistant infection.
Four papers present and refine novel therapies: chitosan sponge local delivery of amikacin and vancomycin; use of polymerized vancomycin to inhibit Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm; optimization of his daptomycin weight percent in antibiotic loaded PMMA bone cement; and further characterization of the compressive strength of antimicrobial loaded bone cement.
Two papers report on the flora involved in bone and joint infections in injecting drug abusers and bacteria colonization of bone allografts.
The annual, collegial meeting of the Musculoskeletal Infection Society of North America provides the opportunity for basic scientists, infectious disease specialists, and orthopaedists to meet and discuss their work in an intimate setting. The two-day meeting in 2010 will be at the Ritz-Carlton Marine del Rey, Los Angeles, CA, August 6–7. We invite you to attend.