Abstract
Introduction: infection after primary ACL reconstruction is a rare complication that can lead to devastating results. To find a solution, a decade ago, is began to practice of soaking the graft in vancomycin.
Objective: determine if prior submersion of the autologous hamstring graft in vancomycin reduces the infection rate in primary ACL reconstruction.
Materials and methods: multicenter retrospective analysis that included 626 primary ACL reconstructions in a period from July 2013 to March 2020: 423 patients were treated with classical intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis (Group 1) and 203 patients with submergence of the graft in a 5 mg/ml solution of vancomycin added to intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis (Group 2).
Results: six cases of septic arthritis were observed in Group 1 (1.41%); three due to Staphylococcus aureus, one Staphylococcus epidermidis and another due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Group 2 reported no cases of infection.
Conclusion: prophylactic submergence of the hamstring graft reduced the infection rate in this series compared with intravenous antibiotics alone.
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