Making sure someone’s gut microbiome – the environment of good and bad bacteria – is healthy before surgery could reduce the risk of infection of the artificial joints, say the researchers from Cornell University.
Post-surgery infection is rare and affects only 1 per cent of patients – but as one million Americans opt for knee or hip replacement surgery every year, that still means around 10,000 get infected from ‘bad’ bacteria.
But preparing the patient with a course of probiotics before surgery could reduce the risk of infection, the researchers say.
But they left unanswered the bigger question: do ‘bad’ gut bacteria infect the joints and cause all the disabilities of arthritis. So instead of being a disease of ‘wear-and-tear’, as every sufferer is told, osteoarthritis and its many derivatives could actually be caused by bacterial infections.
(Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 2019; 1: doi: 10.1097/CORR.0000000000000851)
What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community
