Abstracts Posters SICOT-SOF meeting Gothenburg 2010 _2_

Poster
Topic: Infections
Abstract number: 25810
REDUCING THE BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION RATE OF FEMORAL HEAD
ALLOGRAFTS AT RETRIEVAL
James KENNEDY, Mayyar GHAZAL ASWAD, Talal IBRAHIM, Andrew BROWN
University Hospitals of Leicester, Leicester (UNITED KINGDOM)
Aims: The aim of our study was to report the contamination rate of femoral head
allografts over a 9 year period at our Regional bone bank. In addition, we
investigated whether a change in our microbiological procedures had an effect on our
contamination rate. Methods: A review of all microbiological results of femoral head
allografts at our Regional bone bank between January 2001 and December 2009
was conducted. The total number of femoral head donations, the number of
contaminated specimens and the microbiological organism grown on primary culture
or Robertson’s Cooked Meat (RCM) Broth were recorded.Prior to 2007; samples
underwent primary culture on agar plates. The local microbiological procedure policy
was changed in 2007; data was collected prior and post our policy change. Results:
During this 9 year period a total of 6,981 femoral head allografts were donated to the
Regional bone bank. Of the 6,981 femoral head allografts 1,008 were found to be
contaminated, a rate of 14.4%. Prior to the change of policy to RCM broth cultures
performed in theatre, the annual contamination rate ranged from 16-22%, this
decreased to 7.9% following our policy change. Conclusions: Our contamination rate
is within the range of previously published data. Microorganisms found were of low
virulence, the majority being Coagulase Negative Staph (76%). We noticed a
decrease in the contamination rate when using RCM broth in theatre.
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