Clinical Research Directory

Proof of Concept Study to Assess Safety and Efficacy of Phage Therapy in Hip or Knee Prosthetic Joint Infections Due to Staphylococcus Aureus Treated by DAIR.

Total joint replacements are effective for chronic pain but can lead to Prosthetic Joint Infections (PJI), primarily caused by Staphylococcus aureus and resistant to antibiotics. Standard treatment involves DAIR surgery and antibiotics, but there's a need for better solutions due to rising infections and antibiotic resistance. Bacteriophage therapy, which targets specific bacteria, shows promise. Phaxiam Therapeutics is studying the safety and efficacy of phage therapy in treating Staphylococcus aureus infections in hip or knee PJI patients undergoing DAIR.

Long Term Follow-up of Patients With Prosthetic Joint Infection of the Hip Treated at University Hospitals Leuven

Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) of a Total Hip Replacement (THR) is a disastrous complication of an otherwise extremely successful surgical procedure. It is associated with a burdensome treatment for the patient, significant challenges for the medical team and high costs for society. As more joint replacements are being performed each year, due to an ageing population and lower thresholds for surgery, the number of PJIs is on the rise. Many of these patients will be referred to University Hospitals Leuven as the physicians have extensive experience with this particular pathology and can offer a multidisciplinary and patient-tailored treatment. Many controversies exist in the field of PJI treatment, both with regard to the surgical aspects as well as the antibiotic treatment. Setting up randomized controlled trials to answer these questions has been proven to be very difficult due to large variations in patients, implants, germs, soft and hard tissues, antibiotic resistance patterns, and so on. Also, surgery for PJIs is usually non-elective / semi-urgent and therefore time to include patients into different trials is limited. Therefore the investigators will prospectively collect data on patients with PJI treated at University Hospitals Leuven, starting 01/01/2022, in order to have knowledge of own results and inform patients about chances of success prior to treatment; perform internal audits and quality checks; answer questions in the field of PJI treatment not suitable for RCTs.

Innovative Technologies for Salvage Procedures of Failed Treatments of Osteoarthritis: Biomimetics Solutions (CustomPN)

In this prospective multicenter study, a population of adult individuals consecutively treated for revision hips, requiring a custom-made acetabular implant for non-oncological reasons, will be included. The custom-made implant is a personalized implant produced using additive manufacturing, based on the pre-operative CT scan that details the bone damage. Patients eligible for this implant are those with severe acetabular bone damage Paprosky 3 (loss of the superolateral part and one of the two ventro-caudal walls). Preoperatively, the patient will undergo a clinical evaluation. Data will be collected on the patient's general health status with the Charlson score, the reason for revision, number of revisions, type of implant in place, and the time elapsed between the failed implant and the revision in question. The bone deficit will be studied through CT measurements according to qualitative and quantitative scales. During the surgery, information on intraoperative complications will be collected. In the postoperative period, perioperative complications will be collected according to the Clavien Dindo classification. The clinical radiographic evaluations will be carried out during outpatient follow-up visits at 1, 3, 12, 24, and 36 months after revision. They include the Harris Hip Score clinical score, the EQ-5D PROM, and the patient's satisfaction level (qualitative assessment in 4 grades: unsatisfied, slightly satisfied, moderately satisfied, fully satisfied). The positional parameters of the implant will be evaluated, as compared to the immediate post-operative X-ray: acetabular abduction, acetabular anteversion, center of rotation height, center of rotation medialization, and inclination of the custom-made component. From 12 months onwards, the osteointegration characteristics of the component will be assessed: presence of radial trabeculae at the interface, superolateral and inferior reinforcements, stress shielding, absence of radiolucent lines. Re-revision rates will be determined using the Kaplan-Meier method. The reasons for re-revision will be noted.

Single-stage Surgery With Antibiotic-loaded Hydrogel Coated Implants Versus Two Stage Surgery for Secondary Prevention of Complex Chronic Periprosthetic Hip Joint Infection

Each year, around 1500 infected Total Hip Arthroplasties (THA) need non-conservative surgery, remaining an issue for patients and healthcare units. The recommended treatment, relying on cohort reviews and international consensus follows a two-stage protocol. This protocol implies a first surgery to remove all infected implants and at least 6 weeks of antibiotic treatment without implant, then usually an antibiotic-free period and only then a second surgery to put back new implants and start the rehabilitation protocol, with usually more than a week of a second hospital stay. Between both surgeries, full-weight bearing is prohibited and joint stiffness and/or pain are rather usual complications. Failure rate is estimated at 10% in this two-stage strategy. The single-stage procedure (i.e. implanting back a new prosthesis during the same surgery after implant removal, synovectomy and lavage) is thought to be less susceptible to late functional complications (i.e. pain, stiffness and muscle deficiency) with a shorter, single hospital stay. Although, with single-stage surgery, infection control could be less efficient because most pathogens produce during the first hours of infection an antibiotic-resistant layer called biofilm, allowing them to colonize and adhere to foreign objects like implants. This single-surgery protocol thus highly relies on antibiotics and has a list of contra-indications (based on experts' consensus): the presence of damaged soft tissues or a sinus tract, unknown pathogens, difficult to treat micro-organisms, severe immunosuppression and for many surgeons, each time a bone graft is necessary. Most of these contra-indications are directly related to the biofilm. As no randomized control trial has ever compared single-stage versus two-stage surgery, the level of evidence for recommending one procedure over the other is low. We conducted a survey that showed that most of the French reference centers have already switched to single stage surgery for single-stage non contra-indicated cases. An antibiotic-loaded hydrogel coating (Defensive Antiadhesive Coating®, Novagenit SRL), has been proven to mechanically prevent the biofilm formation, while allowing a prolonged intraarticular antibiotic release, in a randomized controlled trial in primary prevention of infection in THA. The addition of this biofilm inhibitor to a single-stage surgery might stand as a promising strategy for secondary prevention of peri-prosthetic hip joint infection. Moreover, using this device to prevent biofilm formation could expand one stage surgery to patients that are "normally" contra-indicated to one stage surgery.

Clinical Evaluation and Cost-effectiveness Analysis of 3D Digital Surgery in Traumatology

Digital surgery, in combination with patient specific instrumentation (PSI) is being used more and more in traumatology due to its proven benefits and applications. Nowadays, medical case planning and an optimal preparation before surgery are still a challenge for surgeons. This lack of preparation is translated into longer surgical procedures, potential complications, unnecessary sterilization of materials and a high number of fluoroscopies. 2D techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) and X-rays remain essential for medical planning, however, in many cases, a 3D visualization is needed to achieve better results, especially in complex cases.The use of personalized medical instruments such as surgical guides has proven to increase clinical accuracy, assuring a better correction of bone deformities, and allowing a more precise location of implants and screw positioning. Furthermore, the use of 3D-printed patient-specific prosthesis can lead to better clinical outcomes as they reduce the number of complications as well as they present a longer lifespan compared to conventional generic implants.Despite the potential of 3D technology in the medical field, there is still a lack of robust studies that compares clinical benefits between digital surgery and conventional 2D surgery, and its economic impact is still unknown. Thus, the investigators propose this randomized, prospective and multi-center clinical study to evaluate the use of 3D technology in traumatology. The aim of this project is to prove that digital surgery is a cost-effective methodology and therefore it should be adopted by the public health system as a gold standard procedure.