Severe Spinal Surgery Infection and Local Ozone Therapy as Complementary Treatment: A Case Report

Abstract

Background: Infection is a serious surgical complication that significantly increases morbidity and mortality rates as well as health care expenses. Increased bacterial resistance to antibiotics makes the treatment of such events even more troublesome. Objective: To report on a surgical infection case treated with ozone as a complementary therapy. Methods and Materials: A female, 65 years old, submitted to a complex surgical procedure for adult kyphotic deformity correction that presented with early postsurgical infection. The patient was treated with revision surgery and antibiotics that improved the condition but were unable to delete the infection. Ozone, in its gaseous form, was injected subcutaneously and paravertebrally twice weekly for 3 weeks. Results: After 3 weeks of treatment, the wound healed completely. Follow-up visits and laboratory exams for up to 1 year after surgery showed no recurrence of infection. Conclusions: Although just a single case, topical ozone therapy for surgical infections showed promising potential in this specific case.

Management of Surgical Site Infections in Spine Surgery: A Current Concept Review

“…to the patients and observed improvement in wound healing [37]. Also, the application of a mixture ozone and oxygen to a non-healing wound resulted in prompt healing [9]. These can be considered adjuncts to treatment.…”

“…This emphasizes the need for good pre-operative and intra-operative preventive measures. Aside this direct route of microbial acquisition, infectious agents can be gotten by a spread from a nearby focus and rarely through the haematogenous route [6,9]. Generally, Gram-positive infection is more common than Gram-negative infection in most of cases of spine SSIs [3,10].…”