Orthopaedic Surgery: Optimizing Antibiotic Therapy through Evaluation of Local Antibiotic Bone- and Soft Tissue Concentrations

Dear Colleagues,

We administer a lot of antibiotics to our patients—let us do it the best possible way!

Antibiotics must reach the target site, i.e., the site of infection or where infection is to be avoided, in sufficient concentration and for an adequate amount time to have an effect. Plasma values are often used as surrogate markers for tissue concentrations, and thus for sufficiency of the antibiotic therapy. However, due to different molecular size, chemical structure, etc., antibiotics present different tissue pharmacokinetic profiles, which, furthermore, also depend on the dosage and way of administration, i.e., intravenous (bolus, intermittent or continuous), oral, intramuscular or local. Moreover, the opted ideal antibiotic tissue pharmacokinetic profile relies on the efficacy of the specific antibiotic (e.g., time-dependent and concentrations-dependent killing). These considerations and information are extremely important for the treating health physician and should be included in every antibiotic therapy regimen.

Although methodological improvements have occurred over the recent years, the determination of antibiotic tissue concentrations remains challenging because no gold standard exist to validate the findings. Bone is unique and heterogenous , and behaviour highly depends on the physiological or pathological state of the bone, such as in the case of bone fracture, bone infection or presence of an implant. This Special Issue focuses on optimizing the current antibiotic therapy in orthopaedic surgery by evaluating local antibiotic bone and soft tissue concentrations. The issue will consist of 10–15 manuscripts, which may include original research, review articles, case series and opinion papers. We are interested in both qualitative research and quantitative research that provide tools for professionals and individuals to responsibly use antimicrobials.

Dr. Mats Bue
Dr. Maiken Stilling
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.