Occurrence and persistence of biofilms on cared chronic wounds: A large multicentric clinical study

Introduction

The prevalence of biofilms on chronic wounds is difficult to evaluate and the clinical diagnosis of biofilm remains essentially based on expert opinions. While all previous studies converge towards the proof that biofilm presence on non-healing chronic wounds is the general case, no study reports its occurrence on cared wounds after including anti-biofilm treatment. This prospective and observational study is devoted to evaluating the presence of biofilm on cared human chronic wound samples.

M&M

A prospective cohort study of > 100 patients with chronic wounds (duration > 6 weeks) was conducted over 2 years in 4 centers. Samplings were realized in the deepest and/or most necrotic zone of the wound after cleansing. Fluorescence microscopy technique was used to demonstrate the evidence of biofilms in wound samples.

Results

Biofilms were identified on 23% of cleansed wounds.

Discussion

This large difference from the previous studies found in the literature which report 60% of biofilms on chronic wounds could be explained by the inclusion criteria and sampling procedures.