SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Orthopedic Surgery
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Perspectives in Bone and Joint Infections Diagnosis and TreatmentView all 4 articles
Intra-wound vancomycin powder for preventing surgical site infections in spinal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Molecular Medicine Research Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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Background To estimate the impact of intra-wound vancomycin powder (IWVP) as a surgical site infection (SSI) prophylactic in spinal surgery, a meta-analysis study was conducted. Methods A thorough literature review was performed until September 2025, and 2765 relevant related studies were evaluated. After screening, 19 studies were chosen, compromising 12878 spinal surgery patients. The efficacy of the IWVP as SSI prophylaxis in spinal surgery was evaluated using the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using dichotomous model under fixed-or random-effect. Results Compared to the controls, IWVP demonstrated significantly lower rate of overall SSIs (OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.48-0.71, p<0.001), deep SSIs (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.41-0.71, p<0.001), and superficial SSIs (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.42-0.88, p=0.008) in patients undergoing spinal surgery. Conclusions IWVP is associated with a significant reduction in SSI rates in spinal surgery. Its use appears most beneficial in high-risk populations, though potential risks such as antibiotic resistance warrant consideration. These findings support a targeted, rather than universal, application of IWVP, highlighting the need for patient assessment and further high-quality research to refine protocols .
Keywords: deep, intra-wound vancomycin powder, prophylaxis, spinal surgery, Superficial, Surgical site infection
Received: 10 Nov 2025; Accepted: 23 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xianjun, Changbin, Ying and Dengbin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liao Dengbin
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