Bacterial adhesion to orthopaedic implant materials and a novel oxygen plasma modified PEEK surface

Despite extensive use of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) in biomedical applications, information about bacterial adhesion to this biomaterial is limited. This study investigated Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis adhesion to injection moulded and machined PEEK OPTIMA® using a custom-built adhesion chamber with medical grade titanium and Thermanox for comparison. Additionally, bacterial adhesion to a novel oxygen plasma modified PEEK was also investigated in both a pre-operative model in physiological saline, and additionally in a post-operative model in human blood plasma. pre-operative model, the rougher machined PEEK had a significantly greater number of adherent bacteria compared to injection moulded PEEK. Bacterial adhesion to titanium and Thermanox was similar. Oxygen plasma surface modification of PEEK did not lead to a significant change in bacterial adhesion in the pre-operative contamination model, despite observed changes in surface characteristics. In the post-operative contamination model, S. aureus adhesion was increased from 5 × 105 CFU cm−2 to approximately 1.3 × 107 CFU cm−2 on the modified surfaces due to differential protein adhesion during the conditioning period. However, S. epidermidis adhesion to modified PEEK was less than to unmodified PEEK in the post-operative model. These results illustrate the importance of testing bacterial adhesion of several strains in both a pre-operative and post-operative, clinically relevant bacterial contamination model.