The efficacy of the titanium oxide-coated screws in the prevention of implant-related infections; an experimental animal study [İmplant i̇lişkili enfeksiyonlari{dotless}n önlenmesinde titanium oksit kapli{dotless} vidalari{dotless}n etkinliǧi: Deneysel bir hayvan çali{dotless}şmasi{dotless}]

Objective: the treatment of the implant related spinal infection requires long-term antibiotic use and causes prolonged hospital stay; even then in some cases the treatment goals cannot be achieved. this study aims to investigate the efficiency of tio2-coated screws for the treatment of the implant-associated infections in rat spines. methods: 32 female white sprague dawley rats were randomized into 4 groups,each consisting of 8 animals. under anesthesia,a 3-mm titanium micro screw was implanted in the thoracic spine. all 4 groups were inoculated with the same concentration of staphylococcus aureus (106 cfu/10μlt). group 1 and 2 were assigned as titanium screw implanted groups and group 3 and 4 were assigned as tio2-coated screw implanted groups. results: all animals were sacrificed after 21 days. the results were analyzed using mann whitney-u test. when the groups were compared,no statistically significant microbiological difference was found between the tio2-coated screw groups and the titanium screw groups. however,the pathologic evaluation indicated that the inflammatory signs were milder in the animals implanted with tio2-coated screws. conclusions: this study has shown that coating the titanium screws with tio2 has not resulted in a significant difference in the prevention of implant-related infections.