Successful treatment for acute prosthetic joint infection due to MRSA and <em>Candida albicans</em>: a case report and literature review

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Candidal prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) are very rare, and the optimal management for these patients is still unknown. A 54-year-old man with traumatic arthritis due to previous electric injury successfully retained the implant despite the successive infection with MRSA and Candida albicans after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Continuous lavage with vancomycin was used to control MRSA infection and repeated local washout plus oral swallow with voriconazole tablet were administered to eradicate C. albicans. Additional three reported cases were identified by the criteria of selecting patients with concomitant and/or successive MRSA and Candidal PJIs. Different methods were applied with variable outcomes. Therefore, several risk factors such as intra-articular corticosteroid injection, high frequency of door openings in the operating room, excessive blood loss and allogeneic red blood cell transfusions should be avoided. Debridement, antibiotics and implant retention (DAIR) can be an alternative in dedicated patients to control acute MRSA and Candidal PJIs. Particularly, repeated intra-articular washout with susceptible drugs and a prolonged duration of oral antibiotics was essential for microbial control.

Fungal Periprosthetic Hip Joint Infections

“…A total of 89 patients (45; 50.6% males) suffering fungal PJI occurring in the hip joint, covering a 22-year period, were identified [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. The studied population’s mean age was 66.9 years (standard deviation (SD) = 13.2).…”

Eradicating Fungal Periprosthetic TKA “Super-infection”: Review of the Contemporary Literature and Consideration of Antibiotic-Impregnated Dissolving Calcium Sulfate Beads as a Novel PJI Treatment Adjunct

“…Concomitant infection with 2 or more phenotypically diverse pathogens—widely referred to as a “super-infection” [ 5 ]—is sadly not an infrequently encountered situation [ 5 , 8 , [17] , [18] , [19] ]. While polymicrobial bacterial infections are the most prevalent dual-infection type involving in situ joint replacements, given a lack of routine formal testing [ 20 ]—complicated by the organisms themselves often being difficult to isolate [ 5 , 21 ]—the true incidence of fungal PJIs overlaying a concurrent bacterial infection is likely to be greater than that conventionally reported.…”