Thomas P. Sculco, MD, surgeon-in-chief emeritus at HSS, provides the counter-point for Orthopedic Today's cover story on antibiotic bone cement.

He writes that continued efforts to reduce periprosthetic infection (a catastrophic event) have made the need for antibiotic-impregnated cement in routine arthroplasty not cost effective and with possible serious downsides.

"It would require reduction of the current 1 percent infection rate to an impossible 0.04 percent for use of ABLC [antibiotic-loaded cement] to be cost neural," he explains.

Additionally, he describes how a major detrimental effect of using ABLC is the potential for resistant organisms. Studies have shown that there is a rapid mutation of bacteria when confronted with antibiotics which could lead to difficulty in eradicating infections due to these resistant organisms.

Read the full counter point at Healio.com.