Bacterial communities of arthroplasty patients before and after decolonisation treatments: Analysis by targeted 16S rRNA and staphylococcal-specific gene sequencing

A Swedish multicentre, prospective collection of skin and nasal samples obtained from patients (n=83) scheduled for elective arthroplasty was used to study bacterial communities of the anterior nares (n=79) and at skin sites in the groin (n=61) and operation site (n=37) before and after arthroplasty with pre-operative chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) soap showers and cloxacillin prophylaxis. We applied both 16S rRNA (V3-V4) and a complementary targeted tuf gene sequencing approach to comprehensively characterise staphylococcal communities.