Convening the meeting
Dr Kenneth Cutbush attended the Australian Orthopaedic Association Queensland Branch Annual Scientific Meeting in May 2016, held over three days on the Gold Coast. As Scientific Secretary of the Queensland AOA, he convened the meeting.
What the Australian Orthopaedic Association is
The Australian Orthopaedic Association is the professional body for orthopaedic surgeons in Australia. Alongside its national role it administers orthopaedic training in partnership with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and it operates through state branches that run the local teaching programme, the trainee rotations and the annual scientific meeting.
A branch annual scientific meeting is the main occasion each year on which the orthopaedic surgeons of a state are in the same room. Members and trainees present their research and their results, invited speakers cover subjects the branch has decided need attention, and the professional business of the branch is conducted. The Scientific Secretary is the member responsible for the programme: deciding the themes, inviting the faculty, selecting from the submitted papers and arranging the sessions across the three days.
The presentation
He presented a paper titled "Prevention of Periprosthetic Joint Infection", covering current research on avoiding infection in joint replacement surgery. The content applies to shoulder replacements, both anatomic and reverse, as well as to hip and knee replacements.
Periprosthetic joint infection, in plain terms
A prosthesis is an artificial joint. Periprosthetic joint infection means an infection in the tissues around an implanted joint replacement. It is uncommon, but it is one of the more serious complications of replacement surgery, and the reason is the implant itself. Bacteria can attach to the surface of metal or plastic and form a layer in which they are much harder for antibiotics and the immune system to reach, so an established infection around an implant usually cannot be cleared with medication alone and may require further operations.
Because treating it is difficult, almost all of the research effort goes into prevention. That work spans the whole pathway: identifying and managing patient factors beforehand, how the skin is prepared, which antibiotics are given and when, how the theatre is run and how traffic through it is limited, how implants and instruments are handled, and how the wound is closed and dressed. None of these is dramatic on its own; the evidence is about the accumulated effect of doing all of them consistently. The shoulder has its own considerations, since some of the organisms involved live in skin glands around the shoulder and upper chest. Individual results vary.
Related information
- For patients, our post on preventing infection in shoulder replacement surgery covers this in accessible terms.
- Our post on the 2017 Qld AOA Annual Scientific Meeting.
- The anatomic total shoulder replacement page.
- The reverse total shoulder replacement page.