Sonication of Syndesmotic Screws

Peri-implant infections are severe complications after internal fracture fixation surgery. Detection of causative agents of orthopedic implant-associated infections (OIAI) is demanding. Several authors reported increased identification rates of bacterial prevalence using different sonication procedures compared to standard tissue cultures samples, especially for low grade infections. On the author hand, contamination of implants without clinical signs of infection is reported in up to 30% during implant removals after uneventful fracture healing. The raised general questions are: 1.) Is a positive microbiological finding the result of contamination during the index surgery or during implant removal? 2.) Does contaminated implants without clinical or serological signs of infection have a pathological value?