Approximately 125 231 joint replacements and 442 total elbow replacements were performed in England and Wales in 2013 according to data collected by the National Joint Registry (2014). Elbow replacements have a deep infection rate ranging from 1 to 12 % (Ewald et al., 1993; Kasten & Skinner, 1993), with an estimated mean of 5 % (Little et al., 2005).

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis together account for approximately 50 % of the agents isolated from infected joint prostheses, making them the most common causative bacteria (Tattevin et al., 1999). Bacteria responsible for elbow prostheses infections include Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter cloacae (Yamaguchi et al., 1998).