2018 International Consensus on Musculoskeletal Infection – General Assembly

The number of surgical site infections (SSI) following orthopedic procedures continues to rise, threatening the ultimate success of the procedures, causing avoidable morbidity and a critical socioeconomic burden.  Although research in the field continues, there is an immense gap in our knowledge related to many aspects of orthopedic infections. In fact, this issue was highlighted by the Center for Disease Control recently as they updated the SSI prevention Guidelines based on the International Consensus Meeting on Periprosthetic Joint Infection in 2013.

A second International Consensus Meeting, which was expanded to all areas of orthopaedics as an International Consensus Meeting on Musculoskeletal Infection (ICMMI), was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 25-27, 2018. Over 800 delegates served in the consensus meeting. These delegates were actively involved in the Delphi process to generated the Consensus Statements (questions and responses/recommendations), which were voted on by 540 delegates in real time at the ICMMI. During the meeting, thirteen biofilm-associated implant-related, bone and joint infection questions were assigned to the Biofilm Workgroup. These questions with their responses and post meeting refined rationales are available below, with an overview summary and discussion will be available in Consensus Articles published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research.

Click on each question to view the complete document.