Abstract
In this era of diminishing health-care resources and increasing accountability, it is our duty as orthopaedic surgeons to minimize the risk of complications and to optimize the outcomes for our patients. The prevention of surgical site infection has been of particular interest recently. Two recent articles in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery by Kim and coauthors and by Schwarzkopf and associates address these issues. In the paper by Kim et al., the authors instituted a screening and eradication program for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in patients undergoing elective orthopaedic operations at the New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. This program was initiated on the basis of multiple previous studies that identified Staphylococcus aureus as an organism that is carried in the nasal passages of patients1-3. In addition, staphylococci continue to be the most common causes of infection after orthopaedic operations. It also has been shown that intranasal mupirocin is the most effective method of eradicating intranasal Staphylococcus aureus 4. In this study, the authors wished to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of instituting a hospital-wide program for identifying carriers and attempting to eradicate the infection prior to elective orthopaedic operations. It is commendable that a hospital …
Published Version
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