Impact of Prophylactic Use of Irrisept Irrigation System for Spinal Instrumentation

Spinal instrumentation remains the standard of care in the treatment of various traumatic, oncologic, and degenerative spinal pathologies, often requiring the implantation of hardware to stabilize the bony column. In the setting of an aging patient population and expanding indications for instrumentation in younger patients, the number of spinal operations performed has risen substantially within the past decade. Although these procedures have proven to enhance patient quality of life, spinal instrumentation is not without post-operative complication, most notable of which are surgical site infection, seroma formation, and wound breakdown. Such complications can result in notable negative sequelae. Recurrent seroma may compress underlying neurologic structures or increase pressure along the incision, thereby precipitating wound dehiscence and inoculation of the surgical site with pathogenic organisms. Deep space infections often result in prolonged hospitalization, long-term suppressive antibiotic therapy, hardware removal, and permanent disability, which increases cost burden at the patient and hospital level. As such, preventative strategies to reduce the rate of complications following spinal instrumentation remain paramount. Within recent years, attention has turned to various irrigation methods to terminally sterilize prosthetic devices and wound beds, thereby minimizing bacterial colonization and biofilm formation that would otherwise predispose infection.

Irrisept (Irrimax Corporation, Gainesville, Florida) is a solution comprised of 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate in 99.95% sterile water administered through a proprietary, low-pressure lavage mechanism that has demonstrated efficacy as a bacteriocidal agent in orthopedic hip and knee arthroplasty procedures. Whereas other antiseptic irrigation solutions, such as vancomycin-saline lavage, are routinely used to prevent surgical site infection, relative inertness against gram negative organisms and potential predisposition toward seroma formation render them non-ideal for use in spine surgery. Despite the utility of dilute chlorhexidine gluconate as a prophylactic irrigant, there exist gaps in knowledge with regard to the efficacy of Irrisept to prevent post-operative complications following spinal instrumentation. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that prophylactic use of Irrisept irrigation will result in fewer surgical site infections, clinically significant seromas, and gram negative or atypical infections when compared to standard of care irrigation (vancomycin-saline solution with or without topical vancomycin powder).

Proposed is a prospective, randomized controlled trial comparing rates of post-operative complications following use of Irrisept irrigation alone versus vancomycin-saline lavage with or without topical vancomycin powder (standard of care) in patients aged 18 years or older who undergo posterior cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and/or sacral spinal instrumentation for various indications (deformity, malignancy, degenerative pathology, and trauma) at Rhode Island Hospital.