Infections resulting from joint-replacement surgeries are costly and potentially deadly. Now researchers at MIT are developing coatings for medical implants that can be loaded with multiple drugs, including antibiotics that are released over time. The process involves layering antibiotic films, which are released over the short term, onto a permanently antibacterial polymer designed to prevent infection over the long term.
About one percent of knee and hip replacement surgeries result in infection; the number rises to three to five percent for second surgeries. "It's a low rate, but if you are the one out of one hundred who gets an infection, the complications are catastrophic," says Lloyd Miller, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. All the infected tissue and hardware must be surgically removed and replaced with an antibiotic block; the patient cannot walk for six to eight weeks while being treated with intravenous antibiotics to eliminate all traces of infection; and then a revision surgery is done. Complications due to infection are also enormously expensive. A joint replacement costs about $30,000 in the United States, but dealing with infections can raise the tab to nearly $150,000.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Safer Joint Replacements - Technology Review
Author: Katherine Bourzac
