People don't realize it, but when surgery requires any foreign body placement such as hip or knee prosthesis, or mesh pacemaker, etc., any time bacteria enters the body as with a strep throat, urinary tract infection or wound infection
People don't realize it, but when surgery requires any foreign body placement such as hip or knee prosthesis, or mesh pacemaker, etc., any time bacteria enters the body as with a strep throat, urinary tract infection or wound infection anywhere in the body, the bacteria are carried in the blood stream throughout the body. During their trip past a foreign body, that foreign body can be "seeded," i.e., the bacteria can attach to the surface of the foreign body. Antibiotics can heal most surrounding tissues, but there are no blood vessels to carry them onto the prosthesis itself. So, when the infection appears to have been resolved, and the antibiotics discontinued, the still alive bacteria not gotten to on the