Microbial Colonization of Medical Devices and Novel Preventive Strategies

Abstract

Upon implantation or insertion into patient's body for exerting the intended purpose like salvage of normal functions of vital organs, the medical devices are unfortunately becoming the sites of competition between host cell integration and microbial adhesion. Moreover, since there is an increased use of implanted medical devices, the incidence of biofilm-and medical devices-related nosocomial infections is also increasing progressively. To control microbial colonization and subsequent biofilm formation of the medical devices, different approaches either to enhance the efficiency of certain antimicrobial agents or to disrupt the basic physiology of the pathogenic microorganisms including novel small molecules and antipathogenic drugs are being explored. In addition, the various lipid-and polymer-based drug delivery carriers are also investigated for applying antibiofilm coating of the medical devices especially over catheters. The main intention of this review is therefore to summarize the major and/breakthrough inventions disclosed in patent literature as well as in research papers related to microbial colonization of medical devices and novel preventive strategies. This review starts with an overview of the preventive strategies followed by a short description about the potential of different lipidic-and polymeric-drug delivery carriers in eradicating the biofilm-associated infections from the medical devices.

Analysis of Bacterial Biofilms Using NMR-Based Metabolomics

“…Investigating changes in bacterial metabolomes in response to the different surfaces (e.g., metals and polymers) may contribute to the development of novel materials resistant to biofilm formation [248,249]. Coating or embedding medical devices with antibiotics is a common approach to prevent biofilm infections, but the overuse of antibiotics incurs the risk of inducing the rapid development of resistance [250,251]. …”

Preventing Surgical Site Infections Using a Natural, Biodegradable, Antibacterial Coating on Surgical Sutures

“…The most common pathogen causing these infections is Staphylococcus aureus , a gram-positive bacterium, which is responsible in 23% of the cases [ 3 , 4 ]. To reduce the incidence of SSIs, this source has to be eliminated [ 5 ]. One approach is to coat the surface of surgical sutures with antibacterial agents like antibiotics or other antibacterial substances in order to prevent bacterial adhesion on the surface without impairing other properties of the surgical suture.…”

Nanotechnological approaches for the development of novel antimicrobial strategies

“…Medical devices surface modification is one of the most common anti-biofilm strategies. The main approaches employed are physico-chemical modification and incorporation of antimicrobial substances (Shunmugaperumal, 2010). Physical techniques, such as plasma method, ion-beam change, and photo-grafting, are currently used to modify the material hydrophobicity in order to decrease adsorption of microbial cell or increase the attraction or retention of antimicrobial agents at the surface or allow the connection of a drug delivery mechanism (Pavithra and Doble, 2008).…”