Treatment of chronic orthopaedic infection

Chronic infections are one of the major challenges in orthopaedic surgery, both for surgeons and patients. They are characterised by obstinate persistency of the causing microorganisms and resulting long-term disablement of the patients, associated with remarkable costs for the health care system. Difficulties derive from the biofilm-mode of living of pathogens with resistances against immunological defence and antimicrobial substances, and osseous defects resulting from the disease itself and surgical interventions. Established techniques usually require multiple costly operations with extended periods of disablement and impairment of the patients, sometimes making the therapy worse than the disease. Better understanding of the backgrounds of the conditions has led to new surgical techniques and differentiated application of antibiotics, aiming in improved quality of life for our patients. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2017;2. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.2.160063. Originally published online at www.efortopenreviews.org