Silver coatings, used in many surgical devices, have demonstrated good antimicrobial activity and low toxicity. Oncological musculoskeletal surgery have an high risk of infection, so in the last decades, silver coated mega-prostheses have been introduced and are becoming increasingly widespread. We performed a retrospective analysis of 158 cases of bone tumors, primary or metastatic, treated between 2002–2014 with wide margins resection and reconstruction with tumoral implants. The average age was 59 years (range 11–78 years), all patients were treated by the same surgeon, with antibiotic prophylaxis according to a standard protocol. In 58.5% of patients were implanted silver-coated prostheses, in the remaining part, standard tumor prosthesis. Patients were re-evaluated annually and were recorded complications, with particular attention to infectious diseases.Foreword
Material and methods
