Drainage and Debridement: Powerful Ways to Fight Joint Infections

Joint infections can be extremely painful, and without proper medical treatment, they can also lead to permanent joint damage and disability. While antibiotics may help more mild infections, many infections benefit from more advanced therapies, like drainage and debridement.

Thomas E. Powell, MD, is a leading and trusted provider of state-of-the-art joint treatments for patients at Powell Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, including drainage and debridement. Here, Dr. Powell and his team provide an overview of these two techniques and their role in managing moderate and severe infections. 

Joint infections 101

Joint infections happen when germs, like bacteria, enter the joint space. Infections can happen following an injury that causes a cut in your skin (particularly a deep cut) or following joint surgery. Some infections happen when bacteria spread from one area of your body to a joint.

Joint infections can be very painful, causing significant discomfort and mobility issues. In addition to pain in and around the joint, infections can cause redness, warmth, tenderness in the skin surrounding the joint, and swelling that interferes with normal joint movement. As your body fights off the germs, pus accumulates in and around the joint, increasing pressure and leading to additional joint damage. 

Like other infections, joint infections should be treated promptly. Delaying care can allow the infection to spread, eventually leading to permanent loss of joint function or causing widespread infection that can be life-threatening.

Fighting infections with drainage and debridement

While antibiotics can play a role in managing joint infections, many infections require additional therapies to enable medications to be effective. Drainage and debridement use advanced techniques to speed healing and prevent permanent joint damage.

Drainage

Drainage is just what it sounds like — special techniques used to drain away excess fluids that build up as part of the natural healing process. These fluids contain living and dead bacteria and white blood cells, along with toxins and other substances associated with the inflammatory process.

Drainage relieves pressure that builds up as fluid accumulates, decreasing stress on the joint surface and helping prevent further joint damage and inflammation. Drainage can be performed through your skin using a special needle (a technique called aspiration), or it can be performed surgically,

Debridement

Debridement is another important tool frequently used in more severe infections. This technique is aimed at removing dead or infected tissue in and around the joint space, eliminating a potential “breeding ground” for bacteria and decreasing the overall germ population.

By removing infected tissue, debridement also works to prevent the infection from spreading, and it helps medical therapies, like antibiotic therapy, be more effective. Debridement is a surgical procedure tailored for more advanced infections that haven’t responded to more conservative options. Both debridement and drainage are used alongside antibiotic therapy using oral, injectable, or IV antibiotics.

Prompt treatment is critical

Joint infections tend to grow worse over time, and early treatment is the best way to prevent complications and avoid more complex therapies, as well. If you think you have a joint infection or if you’re experiencing joint pain or swelling, call 205-606-5232 or request an appointment online with Powell Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, today.