Is Vancomycin-only Prophylaxis for Patients With Penicillin Allergy Associated With Increased Risk of Infection After Arthroplasty?

CONCLUSIONS: With the numbers available, vancomycin alone during elective primary TJA does not seem to result in a higher rate of subsequent deep SSI. However, patients who received vancomycin alone demonstrated reduced odds of Gram-positive organisms and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Vancomycin monotherapy can be used without increasing the risk of deep SSI; however, it should only be used in patients who require vancomycin, eg, anaphylactic reactions to penicillin resulting from the potential for the emergence of organism resistance and nephrotoxicity. Future studies are needed that use registry and large database studies to refute or confirm the preliminary findings of this study and determine if vancomycin monotherapy influences the risk of periprosthetic joint infection. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, therapeutic study. PMID: 26689584 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research