• Zachary J Grabel, Allison Boden, Dale N Segal, Stephanie Boden, Andrew H Milby, and John G Heller.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, 59 Executive Park South, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. Electronic address: zgrabel@emory.edu.
• Spine J. 2019 Feb 1; 19 (2): 261-266.

Background ContextThere is growing concern that the microbial profile of surgical site infection (SSI) in the setting of prophylactic vancomycin powder may favor more resistant and uncommon organisms.PurposeTo demonstrate the impact of prophylactic intraoperative vancomycin powder on microbial profile, antibiotic regimen, length of stay (LOS), and reoperation rate in spine surgical site infection.Study Design And/Or SettingRetrospective cohort study.Patient Samplethe study included 115 postoperative spine patients who were required to return to the operating room for SSI.Outcome MeasuresThe outcome measures were microbial profile, reoperation rate, antibiotic regimen, and LOS for patients with postoperative spine infection who either did (treated) or did not (untreated) receive prophylactic vancomycin powder during their index procedure.MethodsA retrospective review of patients who underwent posterior thoracic and/or lumbar spine surgery between 2010 and 2017 was conducted. Those undergoing surgical treatment of SSI were identified, and patients were divided into two groups - those who were treated with intraoperative vancomycin (treated) and those who were not (untreated). The organism profile for each group was compared. The average LOS, reoperation rate, and number of patients requiring more than 1 antibiotic were calculated for each patient in both groups.ResultsThere were 5,909 procedures performed. One hundred and fifteen SSIs were identified, resulting in a 1.9% infection rate. Prophylactic vancomycin powder was used in the index procedure for 42 of those cases. 23.8% of cultures in the vancomycin group were polymicrobial and 16.7% were gram-negative compared with 9.6% (p=0.039) and 4.1% (p=0.021) in the untreated group, respectively. In the vancomycin-treated group, 26.1% of patients underwent repeat irrigation and debridement compared with 38.4% in the untreated group (p=0.184). The percentage of patients in the treatment and untreated group who required more than 1 antibiotic was 26.0% and 26.1%, respectively (p=0.984). Mean LOS in the treatment group was 8.0 versus 7.9 for the untreated group (p=0.945) CONCLUSIONS: In this series, vancomycin powder was associated with a higher prevalence of gram-negative and polymicrobial organisms in patients that ultimately developed postoperative SSI. However, this did not adversely affect the need for multiple reoperations, antibiotic regimen, or LOS for these patients.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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