Document is current

Article History

Received: 14 August 2025

Accepted: 9 February 2026

First Online: 14 March 2026

Declarations

:

: Ethical approvals were handled according to national legislations at the participating clinics: Karolinska University Hospital (Sweden), Maastricht University Medical Centre, Utrecht University Medical Centre and University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands), and University Hospitals Birmingham (UK). Karolinska and Maastricht samples were from clinical investigations (Sponsor Oticon Medical, Askim, SE, Study ID C49 and C50, respectively) with ethical approvals 2014/1566-31/2 and NL50072.068.14/METC141007, respectively. Samples from Midland Regional Hospital (Ireland) had patient consent for use in academic research per national bioethics policies. Remaining samples were considered waste materials and were exempt from ethical approval. Clinical data were limited to sex, age, comorbidities, implant type, surgical implantation technique, time in situ, reason for explantation and bacterial species (in cases of diagnosed infection). All samples were coded in the biobank without patient identity access.

: MG is enrolled as an industrial PhD at Oticon Medical AB, fully supported by grants from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) and William Demant Fund (Case no. 20-1587, ). MLJ is under the employment of Oticon Medical AB (Askim, Sweden). This (commercial affiliation) does not alter the authors’ adherence to the journal’s policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

: None