Review Article

Antibiotic Elution from Hip and Knee Acrylic Bone Cement Spacers: A Systematic Review

Table 2

Findings about the antibiotic elution from hip and knee spacers after spacer implantation in vivo.

StudyPlace of measurement Time period of measurementPharmacokinetic findingsInfection control

Anagnostakos et al. [6]Joint fluidFirst 7 postop. days 39 µg/ml, 72 µg/ml on day 1
1.9 µg/ml, 6.6 µg/ml on day 7
Between days 5 and 7 intermittent increase in the elution of both antibiotics
n.r.

Balato et al. [7]Joint fluidFirst 48 postop. hours 53.9 µg/ml in the hip group, 44.1 µg/ml in the knee group
Mean [G] significantly higher in the hip than in the knee group (µg/ml versus µg/ml) one hour after implantation
100%

Bertazzoni Minelli et al. [8]Joint fluidFirst 24 postop. hours 88 µg/ml in the hip group, 110 µg/ml in the knee group
28.8 µg/ml in the hip group, 158.9 µg/ml in the knee group
100%

Hsieh et al. [10]Joint fluidFirst 7 postop. daysMean 1,538 µg/ml, mean 1,003.5 µg/ml on day 1
Mean 571.9 µg/ml, mean 313.6 µg/ml on day 7
97.8%

Hsieh et al. [11]Joint fluidFirst 7 postop. daysMean 58.3 µg/ml, mean 485.5 µg/ml on day 1
Mean 14.6 µg/ml, mean 76.1 µg/ml on day 7
95.2%

Isiklar et al. [12]Joint fluidFirst 24 postop. hoursMean [V] 57 µg/ml100%

Kelm et al. [13]Joint fluidFirst 7 postop. daysVancomycin quantitatively higher than gentamicin
extrapolated concentration-time curves showed power functions, so that subtherapeutic antibiotic levels can be expected for vancomycin on the 17th postop. day and for gentamicin on the 14th postop. day
n.r.

Regis et al. [16]Joint fluidFirst 24 postop. hours[G] ranged between 15 and 90 µg/ml; [V] ranged between 13.8 and 40 µg/mln.r.

G: gentamicin; V: vancomycin; A: aztreonam; MAX: maximum; MIN: minimum; n.r.: not reported.