Dissolvable Antibiotic Beads in Treatment of Periprosthetic Joint Infection and Revision Arthroplasty. The Use of Synthetic Pure Calcium Sulfate (Stimulan®)Impregnated with Vancomycin & Tobramycin

This study reviews clinical results in aseptic and septic revision total hip and total knee surgery, where STIMULAN is applied as a carrier for antibiotics. This review looks at levels of infection, rates of drainage and heterotopic bone formation. In all reported cases in the series, a set combination of vancomycin and tobramycin is applied. Of the 250 procedures performed, there were 9 failures (3.6%), of these only 6 (2.4%) were due to infection. Considering the overall complexity of the cases the incidence of wound drainage was relatively low at 3.2% and was generally seen when larger volumes of STIMULAN was used (≥ 30cc). Heterotopic bone formation in this series was 1.2% and again was generally seen when larger volumes of STIMULAN were used (Av. 33cc per case). The abstract can be read, and the full paper can be obtained here.