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2025 international consensus meeting on musculoskeletal infection: summary from the Biofilm workgroup on biofilm formation, persistence, and host-environment interactions

2025 international consensus meeting on musculoskeletal infection: summary from the Biofilm workgroup on biofilm formation, persistence, and host-environment interactions
2025 international consensus meeting on musculoskeletal infection: summary from the Biofilm workgroup on biofilm formation, persistence, and host-environment interactions

Musculoskeletal infection (MSKI) remains a major problem after trauma and elective orthopedic surgery. Chronic MSKI is related to the formation of biofilm, which impairs diagnosis and effective treatments. Therefore, to understand and communicate global standards and best practices, the 2025 International Consensus Meeting (ICM) on MSKI created a Biofilm Section to address crucial aspects of biofilm biology pertaining to its mechanisms of drug resistance and immune evasion, and potential approaches to overcome them. This featured a 2-year process, with final voting and discussion on May 8-10, 2025, in Istanbul, Turkey. This Consensus Article is the effort of the Biofilm Basic Mechanisms Workgroup, which interpreted the results on ICM questions related to (1) the infectious microenvironment; (2) appropriate inocula in preclinical research; (3) biofilm behavior in infected tissues; and (4) synergy within biofilms and with other comorbidities. Collectively, we find that this field has the necessary research tools to discover the pathophysiology of orthopedic implant-associated biofilm development and maturation, perform clinically relevant studies in animal models, and elucidate mechanisms that allow opportunistic infections in compromised tissues and patients with other health issues.

Animals, Biofilms/growth & development, Humans, Musculoskeletal Diseases/microbiology, Prosthesis-Related Infections/microbiology, osteomyelitis, biofilm persistence, host-pathogen interactions, biofilm, biofilm formation, musculoskeletal infection (MSKI)
0736-0266
Muthukrishnan, Gowrishankar
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Coraça-Huber, Débora C.
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Atkins, Gerald J.
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Abbaszadeh, Ahmad
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Abedi, Armita A.
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Abuhussein, Ezzuddin
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Bingham, Joshua S.
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Cichos, Kyle H.
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Coenye, Tom
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Drago, Lorenzo
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Hamilton, John
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Hickok, Noreen J.
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Iannotti, Ferdinando
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Jennings, Jessica Amber
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Jensen, Louise Kruse
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Li, Bingyun
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Manzary, Mojieb
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Moriarty, T. Fintan
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McDonald, Katya
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Nishitani, Kohei
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Norton, Nicholas
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Oral, Ebru
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Parvizi, Javad M.
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Raafat, Dina
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Saeed, Kordo
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Sallai, Imre
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Schwarz, Edward M.
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Siverino, Claudia
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Sekar, Amita
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Tate, Jermiah
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Trobos, Margarita
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Tubbs, Andie
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et al.
Muthukrishnan, Gowrishankar
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Coraça-Huber, Débora C.
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Atkins, Gerald J.
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Abbaszadeh, Ahmad
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Abedi, Armita A.
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Abuhussein, Ezzuddin
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Bingham, Joshua S.
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Cichos, Kyle H.
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Coenye, Tom
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Drago, Lorenzo
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Hamilton, John
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Hickok, Noreen J.
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Iannotti, Ferdinando
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Jennings, Jessica Amber
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Jensen, Louise Kruse
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Li, Bingyun
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Manzary, Mojieb
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Moriarty, T. Fintan
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McDonald, Katya
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Nishitani, Kohei
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Norton, Nicholas
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Oral, Ebru
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Parvizi, Javad M.
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Raafat, Dina
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Saeed, Kordo
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Sallai, Imre
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Schwarz, Edward M.
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Siverino, Claudia
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Sekar, Amita
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Tate, Jermiah
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Trobos, Margarita
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Tubbs, Andie
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Muthukrishnan, Gowrishankar, Coraça-Huber, Débora C. and Atkins, Gerald J. , et al. (2026) 2025 international consensus meeting on musculoskeletal infection: summary from the Biofilm workgroup on biofilm formation, persistence, and host-environment interactions. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 44 (1), [e70130]. (doi:10.1002/jor.70130).

Record type: Review

Abstract

Musculoskeletal infection (MSKI) remains a major problem after trauma and elective orthopedic surgery. Chronic MSKI is related to the formation of biofilm, which impairs diagnosis and effective treatments. Therefore, to understand and communicate global standards and best practices, the 2025 International Consensus Meeting (ICM) on MSKI created a Biofilm Section to address crucial aspects of biofilm biology pertaining to its mechanisms of drug resistance and immune evasion, and potential approaches to overcome them. This featured a 2-year process, with final voting and discussion on May 8-10, 2025, in Istanbul, Turkey. This Consensus Article is the effort of the Biofilm Basic Mechanisms Workgroup, which interpreted the results on ICM questions related to (1) the infectious microenvironment; (2) appropriate inocula in preclinical research; (3) biofilm behavior in infected tissues; and (4) synergy within biofilms and with other comorbidities. Collectively, we find that this field has the necessary research tools to discover the pathophysiology of orthopedic implant-associated biofilm development and maturation, perform clinically relevant studies in animal models, and elucidate mechanisms that allow opportunistic infections in compromised tissues and patients with other health issues.

Text
ICM 2025 Biofilm Basic Mechanism Consensus Article FInal_092625 - Author's Original
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 18 December 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 January 2026
Published date: 8 January 2026
Keywords: Animals, Biofilms/growth & development, Humans, Musculoskeletal Diseases/microbiology, Prosthesis-Related Infections/microbiology, osteomyelitis, biofilm persistence, host-pathogen interactions, biofilm, biofilm formation, musculoskeletal infection (MSKI)

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 508711
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/508711
ISSN: 0736-0266
PURE UUID: 4798700e-72d6-43d5-b82a-3802f13b235f
ORCID for Kordo Saeed: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0123-0302

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Date deposited: 30 Jan 2026 17:49
Last modified: 31 Jan 2026 06:12

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Contributors

Author: Gowrishankar Muthukrishnan
Author: Débora C. Coraça-Huber
Author: Gerald J. Atkins
Author: Ahmad Abbaszadeh
Author: Armita A. Abedi
Author: Ezzuddin Abuhussein
Author: Joshua S. Bingham
Author: Kyle H. Cichos
Author: Tom Coenye
Author: Lorenzo Drago
Author: John Hamilton
Author: Noreen J. Hickok
Author: Ferdinando Iannotti
Author: Jessica Amber Jennings
Author: Louise Kruse Jensen
Author: Bingyun Li
Author: Mojieb Manzary
Author: T. Fintan Moriarty
Author: Katya McDonald
Author: Kohei Nishitani
Author: Nicholas Norton
Author: Ebru Oral
Author: Javad M. Parvizi
Author: Dina Raafat
Author: Kordo Saeed ORCID iD
Author: Imre Sallai
Author: Edward M. Schwarz
Author: Claudia Siverino
Author: Amita Sekar
Author: Jermiah Tate
Author: Margarita Trobos
Author: Andie Tubbs
Corporate Author: et al.

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