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. 2020 Aug;10(5):640-646.
doi: 10.1177/2192568219869330. Epub 2019 Aug 11.

Implant Retention or Removal for Management of Surgical Site Infection After Spinal Surgery

Aakash Agarwal  1 , Amey Kelkar  1 , Ashish G Agarwal  2 , Daksh Jayaswal  1 , Christian Schultz  1 , Arvind Jayaswal  2 , Vijay K Goel  1 , Anand K Agarwal  1 , Sandeep Gidvani  3
Affiliations

Implant Retention or Removal for Management of Surgical Site Infection After Spinal Surgery

Aakash Agarwal et al. Global Spine J. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Study design: A literature review.

Objective: To summarize the implant removal rate, common bacterial organisms found, time of onset, ratio of superficial to deep infection, and regurgitating the prevalence among all the retrospective and prospective studies on management and characterization of surgical site infections (SSIs).

Methods: PubMed was searched for articles published between 2000 and 2018 on the management or characterization of SSIs after spinal surgery. Only prospective and retrospective studies were included.

Results: A total of 49 articles were found relevant to the objective. These studies highlighted the importance of implant removal to avoid recurrence of SSI. The common organisms detected were methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermis, Staphylococcus epidermis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Propionibacterium acnes, with prevalence of 1% to 15%. A major proportion of all were deep SSI, with minority reporting on late-onset SSI.

Conclusion: Long-term antibiotics administration, and continuous irrigation and debridement were common suggestion among the authors; however, the key measure undertaken or implied by most authors to avoid risk of recurrence was removal or replacement of implants for late-onset SSI.

Keywords: biofilm; contamination; implant removal; implant retention; readmission; revision surgery; surgical site infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. AA reports royalties from Paradigm Spine, Joimax, consultancy from Spinal Balance, editorial board membership from Clinical Spine Surgery and Spine, outside the submitted work. AKA and VKG reports royalties from Paradigm Spine, Joimax, investment/options from Osteonovus and Spinal Balance, outside the submitted work. SG reports consultancy for Spinal Balance and Si Bone, resident and fellow education committee, CME committee, website and digital platform committee, Chair for NASS, and international committee member for AAOS, outside the submitted work. Rest of the authors have nothing to disclose.

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