TY - JOUR ID - 18655 TI - The Use of Calcium Sulphate Beads in the Management of Osteomyelitis of Femur and Tibia: A Systematic Review JO - The Archives of Bone and Joint Surgery JA - ABJS LA - en SN - 2345-4644 AU - Thahir, Azeem AU - Lim, Jiang An AU - West, Cavan AU - Krkovic, Matija AD - ja Krkovic PhD FRCS1 1 Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Addenbrookes Major Trauma Unit, Cambridge University Hospitals, Hills Road, Cambridge, United Kingdom AD - School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge, United Kingdom AD - Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Addenbrookes Major Trauma Unit, Cambridge University Hospitals, Hills Road, Cambridge, United Kingdom Y1 - 2022 PY - 2022 VL - 10 IS - 4 SP - 320 EP - 327 KW - antibiotic beads KW - bone infection KW - calcium sulphate beads KW - long-bone osteomyelitis KW - Stimulan DO - 10.22038/abjs.2021.53566.2661 N2 - Background: Calcium sulphate is a recent alternative for delayed antibiotic elution in infected bones and joints. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of antibiotic impregnated calcium sulphate (AICS) beads in the management of infected tibia and femur, with regards to patient outcomes and complication rates (including reinfection rate, remission rate and union rate).Methods: Searches of AMED, CINAHL, EMBASE, EMCARE, Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar were conducted in June 2020, with the mesh terms: “Calcium sulphate beads” or “Calcium sulfate beads” or “antibiotic beads” or “Stimulan” AND “Bone infection” or “Osteomyelitis” or “Debridement” AND “Tibia” or “Femur”. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of interventions (ROBINS-i) tool, and quality assessed via the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria.Results: Out of 104 relevant papers, 10 met the inclusion criteria for data extraction. Total infection remission was 6.8%, which was greater than that of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA, 21.2%). Complication rates varied. The main issue regarding AICS use was wound drainage, which was considerably higher in studies involving treatment of tibia alone. Studies using PMMA did not experience this issue, but there were a few incidences of superficial pin tract infection following surgery.Conclusion: Where AICS was used, it was consistently effective at infection eradication, despite variation in causative organism and location of bead placement. Wound drainage varied and was higher in papers regarding tibial cases alone.Level of evidence: III UR - https://abjs.mums.ac.ir/article_18655.html L1 - https://abjs.mums.ac.ir/article_18655_3cb203f55441ae9f35d4b492429ce1d0.pdf ER -