[Toxicity of antiseptics on chondrocytes in vitro]

Local antiseptics are commonly used for perioperative skin and wound disinfection and as solutions for joint lavage. Therefore, we examined if an intra-articular use of these antiseptics is possible by using an IN VITRO chondrocyte model.

Articular chondrocytes harvested from 7 patients were cultured. After reaching 80% confluency different concentrations (0%, 1%, 10%, 50%, 100%) of polyhexanide, hydrogen peroxide and povidone-iodine were added for 5 minutes. Afterwards, the solution was removed and the chondrocytes were cultured for 24 hours. Subsequently the vitality and proliferation rate (DNA synthesis) were analysed with the WST-1 and BrdU tests.

1% povidone-iodine and 1% hydrogen peroxide solutions significantly (p=0.001) decreased the chondrocyte vitality as compared to our control group. There was no significant difference (p=0.71) after the application of 1% polyhexanide in the vitality ratios. A significant decrease in vitality was also observed after the application of 10% polyhexanide solution (p=0.001). Application of 1% povidone-iodine solution, 1% hydrogen peroxide solution and 10% polyhexanide revealed a decrease in the metabolic cell activity of 80% compared to our control group, whereas the activity was 65% (p=0.026) compared to the control group after application of 1% polyhexanide solution.

Our results demonstrate the chondrotoxic effect of the tested antiseptic solutions in clinical used concentrations within short time points. Polyhexanide in a low concentrated solution (1%) was the antiseptic with the lowest influence on the vitality and the DNA synthesis of chondrocytes. Thus, this antiseptic solution seemed to be the best choice for intra-articular application. But overall, our study showed general limitations for the intra-articular use of local antiseptics.