Prevention of vascular prosthetic infection with silver-containing antibiotics using a model of direct bacterial contamination

While recent advances have been made in the use of perioperative antibiotics, vascular prosthetic infection remains a serious clinical problem, usually originating from intraoperative direct contamination. Our previous studies have demonstrated that silver-containing antibiotics can be bonded to Dacron vascular prostheses and effectively decrease the incidence of hematogenously induced bacterial infection in the canine model. In an attempt to simulate the clinical situation more closely, we devised a model of direct bacterial contamination to evaluate the efficacy of antimicrobial prostheses in vivo.