An experiment was done in dogs to evaluate how efficient each of several
techniques was in preventing infection after a total joint arthroplasty.
The techniques that were studied were intraoperative irrigation with saline
solution or with antimicrobial solution, perioperative systemic
administration of antibiotics, and the addition of an antibiotic to bone
cement. Irrigation with saline solution did not reduce the incidence of
infection. A slight reduction was found after irrigation with neomycin
solution and after systemic administration of cefazolin solution. The use
of bone cement containing gentamicin caused a statistically significant
reduction in the rate of infection; in fact, no infection developed in any
animal that was treated with bone cement containing gentamicin. There was
excellent but not absolute correlation between findings on culture that
indicated the presence of infection and histological evidence of
inflammation.