Antibiotics in acrylic bone cement. In vivo studies.

In vivo experiments were performed to study elution rates of antibiotics combined with Surgical implex bone cement and efficacy in controlling bacterial infections. Cylinders of bone cement were implanted in animals and at the same time the surgical areas were infected with large numbers of bacteria. Gentamicin and Keflin were eluted from the cylinders in sufficient quantities to completely eliminate or markedly reduce the number of bacteria recovered from infected areas. Animals were also treated with an anti-inflammatory drug, hydrocortisone, prior to implantation of cylinders and infection. The antibiotics in the bone cement effectively destroyed the bacteria in these animals with impaired inflammatory responses as compared with control animals.