Staphylococcal
prosthetic joint infections:
similar, but still different
STAFFAN TEVELL
Medical Science with a specialisation in Medicine
Örebro Studies in Medicine 200 I
ÖREBRO 2019 2019ST
AFF
AN
T
EV
ELL
Sta
ph
ylococc
al P
JIs
: s
im
ila
r, b
ut s
till d
iffe
re
nt
staffan tevell was born in 1975 in Uppsala, Sweden. He obtained his medical degree at Uppsala University in 2001 and moved to Karlstad that same year. He has been employed at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Karlstad Hospital since 2002, and he achieved a specialist degree in Infectious Diseases in 2009. His current position, to which he was appointed in 2012, is senior consultant. With a special interest in prosthetic joint infections dating back to 2006, he started work on his doctoral thesis in 2013 under the su-pervision of Professor Bo Söderquist.
Staphylococci constitute a major part of our commensal flora but are also the most common bacteria causing prosthetic joint infections, a dreaded complica-tion of arthroplasty surgery. However, not all staphylococci are the same. The virulent Staphylococcus aureus has the ability to cause severe disease such as bacteremia and infective endocarditis in previously healthy people, while coagulase-negative staphylococci such as Staphylococcus epidermidis and
Staphylococcus capitis rarely act as pathogens unless the patient is
immuno-compromised or has an implanted medical device, such as a prosthetic joint. This thesis explores similarities and differences in clinical presentations and outcomes, antibiotic susceptibility patterns, and genetic relatedness between and within these three staphylococci in prosthetic joint infections.
issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7529-305-9
