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Surgery Publication Highlights Work of Dr. Fred Sweet
Posted on: December/05/2018

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Rockford Spine Center’s Dr. Fred Sweet was the senior author on an important study about antibiotic use during surgery, a writeup of which recently appeared in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Sweet said the study, which involved working with rats, was done to show that antibiotic powders are more powerful than normal IV antibiotics. He’s done extensive research on the use of vancomycin, a powder antibiotic that is applied directly to patients’ wounds during surgery to help prevent infections.

“The goal was to compare different antimicrobials that are in current use and try to show which one is most effective,” Sweet said.

The results showed that a group of rats treated with vancomycin and tobramycin powders had lower infection rates than those treated with a combination of IV antibiotics, iodine and another antibiotic powder. Sweet said the conclusions also support the process of beginning clinical studies on this issue in humans.

Dr. Craig Forsthoefel of the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Andrea Sweet of the University of Missouri College of Medicine and Ryan Dahlberg of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford were part of the team that did the study and co-authored the article. Andrea is Dr. Sweet’s daughter, and this is the second study they’ve published together.

A summary of the article can be found here.


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