Outcomes of Vancomycin Associated to Bone Graft to Prevent Deep Spinal Infection, 573 Consecutive Posterior Spinal Surgical Patients

Abstract

Introduction Infections in spinal surgeries with instrumentation is a complication that not only increases the cost of treatment but also the morbidity and mortality of patients. The rates of surgical site infection in spinal surgery with instrumentation published vary from 2.8 to 6%. The most commonly isolated organism in this kind of surgery is Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin sensitive or resistant. Objective This study aims to assess whether vancomycin decreases infection rates when is associated with bone graft in patients undergoing fusion. Patients and Methods This study is a retrospective study on spinal surgeries with instrumentation performed from January 2011 to December 2013 on 573 patients, using 1 g of vancomycin-associated with bone graft in 205 patients. Results With the use of vancomycin associated to bone graft a reduction in the rate of infection of 4.8 to 1.4 was achieved. Conclusion We found that the use of 1 g of vancomycin added to the bone graft in the posterior spinal fusion is associated with lower rates of infection and we found this result statistically significant ( p < 0.03782).