ИСТИНА

Introduction. Treatment of orthopedic infection requires a multimodal approach, including surgical debridement, adequate wound drainage, local and systemic antibiotic therapy. Local therapy is provided by depot matrices, mostly based on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). PMMA, due to the release of up to 10% of the impregnated antibiotic from its total loaded amount, cannot be considered an optimal depot system. Methods. Samples of polymer hydrogel and PMMA with a volume of 4 cm3, impregnated with vancomycin, rifampicin and cefazolin in various concentrations, were placed in phosphate-buffered saline and incubated at 37 °C. On days 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28, the medium was completely replaced. The concentration of drugs and their release profiles were evaluated using spectrophotometry. 5 parallel studies were performed. Data were processed using Me and 95% CI. Results. For hydrogel samples, the drug release was more than 70% of its total amount, in contrast to PMMA (less than 10%). Burst release was observed in the hydrogels, with up to 80% of the amount released in the first 5 days and exceeding the minimum inhibitory concentrations during the entire observation period. The concentrations released by the hydrogel were on average 7 times higher on day 1, 15 times higher on day 3, 6.6 times higher on day 7, and 3 times or more on subsequent days of observation. Conclusion: The release of antibiotics due to the diffusion of particles is an important advantage of hydrogels compared to PMMA, which potential is limited by surface depletion.