Exploring New Strategies for Infection Treatment

Abstract

Although many improvements have been made regarding the prevention of post-surgical infection during the last few decades, implant-related infections remain an important and challenging clinical problem. With the ever-increasing number of total joint arthroplasties implanted annually and the increasing emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this challenge will be even greater in the near future. Whereas most resistant bacteria can still be treated with last-resort antibiotics such as linezolid and carbapenems, more and more multiresistant species for which there is currently no available antibiotic treatment are being found. This forces us to look at antimicrobial options outside of the traditional field of antibiotics. The efficacy of various potential new strategies has already been investigated in vitro and in vivo. These strategies included the use of antiseptics, antimicrobial peptides, silver, and autologous platelet-rich gel. Most studies have investigated the efficacy of these strategies in the prevention of implant-related infections rather than the treatment of such infections. Despite the promising results of some strategies, almost none have reached the clinical application phase. The authors of the current study investigated another novel strategy against implant-related infections—the use of bacteriophages as antimicrobial agents. Although the use of bacteriophages for this particular indication is novel, the use of bacteriophages to treat infection is actually …