Intralymphatic antibiotic delivery for reducing acute prosthetic graft infection

The lymphatic system has been implicated as a source of synthetic graft contamination when grafts are implanted in the presence of a distal septic focus. In previous studies, radical lymphatic excision and ligation were shown to reduce acute graft sepsis. However significant lymphedema precluded its clinical application. The present study was undertaken to evaluate methods for reducing acute graft sepsis while avoiding lymphatic obstructive complications. Twenty dogs were divided into one control and two experimental cohorts. Femoral interposition grafts were placed in each dog. A hind paw septic focus was introduced and therapy included a control (Group I--no therapy), intravenous antibiotics in Group II and intralymphatic antibiotics in Group III. Graft, blood and tissue cultures from each dog were taken at 48 hours. Lymphatic antibiotic therapy resulted in significantly improved graft culture results when compared to the control (p = 0.0003) and intravenously treated animals (p = 0.007). Blood cultures in the intralymphatically treated group were also significantly better (p = 0.003) than the control group.