title: Incidence of positive intraoperative allograft cultures used in knee ligament reconstruction.
abstract: Soft-tissue allografts are valuable options in knee ligament reconstructive surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the risk of soft-tissue contamination before implantation and the occurrence of infection after implantation in patients who received soft-tissue allografts for knee reconstructive procedures. A retrospective review of medical records was performed for patients who had undergone knee ligament surgery with allograft tissues at one institution between 1993 and 2004. Cultures were positive in 6 (5.7%) of 105 cases. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was the most common organism. None of these patients developed postoperative infections. The culture-positive group had a longer period of joint effusion postoperatively, compared with the culture-negative group (14.2 weeks versus 9.6 weeks). Patients with positive cultures required no additional treatment other than close observation.
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Unit, Department of Orthopaedics, Chiangmai University, Chiangmai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Chanakarn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Phornphutkul
authors.forename: Brian F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wojtys
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D050376:Bone-Patellar Tendon-Bone Grafting; D002175:Candida / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D008023:Ligaments, Articular / Q000293:injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011424:Propionibacterium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000517:prevention & control; D013710:Tendons / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous