Successful Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus Prosthetic Joint Infection with Bacteriophage Therapy
Claudia Ramirez‐Sanchez, Francis B. Gonzales, Maureen Buckley, Biswajit Biswas, Matthew Henry, Michael V. Deschenes, Bri’Anna Horne, Joseph Fackler, Michael Brownstein, Robert T. Schooley, Saima Aslam
Abstract
Successful joint replacement is a life-enhancing procedure with significant growth in the past decade. Prosthetic joint infection occurs rarely; it is a biofilm-based infection that is poorly responsive to antibiotic alone. Recent interest in bacteriophage therapy has made it possible to treat some biofilm-based infections, as well as those caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens, successfully when conventional antibiotic therapy has failed. Here, we describe the case of a 61-year-old woman who was successfully treated after a second cycle of bacteriophage therapy administered at the time of a two-stage exchange procedure for a persistent methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) prosthetic knee-joint infection. We highlight the safety and efficacy of both intravenous and intra-articular infusions of bacteriophage therapy, a successful outcome with a single lytic phage, and the development of serum neutralization with prolonged treatment.