Phage therapy shows potential for treating prosthetic joint infections

Bacteriophages, or phages, may play a significant role in treating complex bacterial infections in prosthetic joints, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The findings suggest phage therapy could provide a potential treatment for managing such infections, including those involving antibiotic-resistant microbes.

"The treatment for chronic prosthetic joint infection has been surgery plus antibiotics, with surgery being the backbone of therapy. When these efforts fail, there can be significant suffering, loss of limb, even death," says author Gina Suh, M.D., Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist. "Phage therapy has the potential to be paradigm-shifting in how we treat infections in this era of increasing medical device use and antibiotic resistance."

Dr. Suh oversaw the first phage treatment at Mayo Clinic in June 2019, when a 62-year-old man was facing potential amputation after multiple failed courses of antibiotics and surgery. The intravenous use of phage therapy was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on a compassionate-use basis.

"We started phage therapy as kind of a last-ditch effort to save his limb, and the patient responded beautifully," Dr. Suh says. "He has remained asymptomatic after completing treatment and he experienced no adverse effects."