Prosthetic joint infections: New method allows for diagnostics of up to 8 samples with high documentation rate

Joint replacements, especially of hip and knee joints, rank among the most frequent surgical interventions in industrialized countries. One of the major risks of a joint replacement is prosthetic joint infection (PIJ), a bacterial infection at the interface of the implant, tissue, and bone. Accurate diagnosis of the involved microbes is essential to select a targeted treatment. The classification of different microorganisms which cause PIJ with conventional methods is in many cases limited. In this application note, Retsch presents a new method which allows for the diagnosis of up to 8 samples with a high documentation rate. The method involves washing the microbes off the tissue samples with 20 ml sterile water and 5 ml glass beads of 1 mm diameter at 30 Hz in a RETSCH mixer mill within 210 seconds.