Antibiotic Beads 11981

Insertion Antibiotic Beads / Cement / Drug-Delivery Device CPT Coding

• 20700
• 20702
• 20704

Removal Antibiotic Beads / Cement / Drug-Delivery Device CPT Coding

• 20701
• 20703
• 20705

Antibiotic cement / Antibiotic beads

• Commercially available pre-mixed antibiotic cement is low-dose and indicated for prophylaxis, not treatment of infection.
• High dose:. 3.6g tobramycin and 1g vancomycin per 40g of bone cement. (Penner MJ, J Arthroplasty 1996;11:939).
• Alternate mixture: 3 bags cement, 4 grams vancomycin, 4 grams ceftazidime (Backstein D, AAOS Annual meeting 2014)
• Addition of more than 4.5 g of powder substantially weakens bone cement;
• Approx 8 grams of antibiotic powder per 40 gm of cement is the highest amount that can be added
• See also Wheeles antibiotic cement notes.
• See also AAOSnow July 2022