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Wound care


Battling biofilm There are several reasons why chronic wounds are a blight on the globe’s medical systems, but


formation of a biofilm on a wound’s surface is perhaps the most difficult to overcome. This barrier shields bacteria against the body’s immune defences and reduces antibiotic efficacy So how can clinicians breach it? Abi Millar asks Barbara Conway, head of pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield, UK, and co-director of the Institute of Skin Integrity and Infection Prevention; Sarah Rowe-Conlon, a research associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina, and Virginie Papadopoulou, research assistant professor in the UNC-NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.


f all the problems facing healthcare systems, chronic wounds are one of the most challenging to address. Characterised as any wound that fails to heal in a timely manner – commonly diabetic foot ulcers or venous leg ulcers – they are costly to treat, distressing for patients, and marked by high recurrence rates. They are also becoming more


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prevalent as the population ages, affecting around 1.5-2 million people in Europe and 2.4-4.5 million in the US. While the causes vary – no two chronic wounds are the same – we can surmise that something has happened to interrupt the healing process. This might be a circulatory problem, a systemic illness, immunosuppression or something else. On top of


Practical Patient Care / www.practical-patient-care.com


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