2026 COA Annual Meeting: Use of Local Vancomycin to Prevent Surgical Site Infections in Open Shoulder Surgery

3 clinical studies including 2934 patients undergoing open shoulder surgery were included in this systematic review comparing local vancomycin administration with no local vancomycin. Procedures included open Latarjet procedures, anatomic shoulder arthroplasty, reverse shoulder arthroplasty, and total shoulder arthroplasty. Outcomes of interest included surgical site infections (SSIs), complications, antibiotic administration methods, and vancomycin dosage. Reported complications were uncommon and primarily consisted of seromas and delayed wound healing. Overall, local vancomycin may reduce SSI rates following open shoulder surgery without increasing complication rates, although the available evidence is limited by the small number of non-randomized studies.