Establishment of an in vivo rat model for chronic musculoskeletal implant infection

Table 2 Recovery of bacteria from rats inoculated with a small inoculum of two S. epidermidis strains

	ATCC 35984	ATCC 12228
Inoculum (CFU)	1.02 (0.80–1.12)·10²	0.92 (0.87–1.04)·10²
Rats (n)	4	4
Bone grafts (n)	8	8
Steel plates (n)^a	12	12
Bacterial growth in bone grafts (total CFU)	341 (± 266)·10⁵	109 (± 79)·10⁵
Bacterial growth in sonicate fluid (CFU/ml)	159 (± 100)·10²	113 (± 94)·10²

^aFrom each animal, one steel plate was processed for SEM and three steel plates were sonicated
The number of CFU in bone grafts and sonicate fluid are presented as mean (± 1 SD)

ISSN: 1749-799X