In vitro elution of vancomycin from calcium phosphate cement

Antibiotic-impregnated bone cement beads have become popular for the treatment of osteomyelitis and/or prosthesis infection. However, bone cement has the disadvantage of heating up during polymerization of cement. Recently, calcium phosphate cement (CPC) has been used as a bone replacement and augmentation, and it does not heat up during polymerization. First, we measured the release rate of vancomycin (VCM) from bone cement and CPC impregnated with VCM for 2 weeks in vitro. The mean concentration of VCM for CPC was 62.6 times at 7 days (258 +/- 29 vs 4.12 +/- 1.0) and 6.7 times at 13 days (15.5 +/- 5.5 vs 2.3 +/- 0.7). Second, we were successful in treating 2 cases of osteomyelitis and prosthesis infection with VCM-impregnated CPC. From this study, we concluded that VCM-impregnated CPC might be an effective material for the treatment of osteomyelitis and/or prosthesis infection.