Comparing the efficacy of two antibiotic cocktails in decontamination of cardiovascular tissues

Cardiovascular allografts are essential for patients with severe cardiovascular diseases. Yet, microbial contamination of the grafts poses a life-threatening risk to recipients. Tissue banks utilize various decontamination methods during cardiovascular tissue processing, often involving antibiotic solutions. This study compares the efficacy of an in-house prepared antibiotic cocktail (tissue bank cocktail) and a commercially available solution (BASE.128) in decontaminating cardiovascular tissues. For this study, the efficacy of the two antibiotic cocktails was compared through quantitative comparisons against challenge microorganisms, and retrospective analysis of routine sterility tests. Both solutions demonstrated comparable decontamination efficiency against challenge strains, achieving significant reductions in bacterial load. However, retrospective sterility tests revealed that while both antibiotic solutions were highly effective in decontaminating cardiovascular allografts, the use of BASE.128 followed a tenfold increase in contamination rates compared to the tissue bank cocktail, primarily due to a slow-growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria strain. These findings highlight the importance of tailored decontamination protocols that consider prevalent microbial contaminants while preserving tissue quality.