Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
More than 6.5 million Americans experience chronic wounds, or wounds that do not heal after several months. Most such wounds contain bacteria that, if not detected and removed, can cause severe infections and lead to complications, including amputation of limbs.
This is especially true for people with diabetic foot ulcers (open wounds), which affect one-third of people with diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, about 20 percent of people who develop diabetic foot ulcers will require a lower-extremity amputation.
When doctors debride (clean) a wound, they remove as many bacteria as possible, but there is one major limitation: not all bacteria are visible to the human eye, so some bacteria may be missed during debridement.
According to a new study published in Advances in Wound Care by the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, there may be a more effective way to detect bacteria during wound debridement. Autofluorescence (AF) imaging, in which a handheld device “lights up” bacteria previously invisible to the human eye, uses violet light to illuminate molecules in the bacterial cell wall. Different types of bacteria change color, allowing doctors to instantly determine how much and what type of bacteria is present in the wound.
“We hope that this new technology will improve surgeons' accuracy in identifying and removing bacteria from wounds, leading to improved outcomes for patients, especially those with diabetic foot wounds,” said Dr. David G. Armstrong, a podiatric surgeon and limb preservation specialist at Keck Medicine and senior author of the study. “Early detection and removal of bacteria from wounds is essential to prevent unavoidable amputations.”
The study, a literature review of 25 studies examining the effectiveness of AF imaging in treating diabetic patients with foot ulcers, found that AF imaging was able to identify bacteria in wounds in approximately 9 out of 10 patients that would have been missed by traditional clinical evaluation.
Traditionally, doctors would debride the wound, send tissue samples to a lab to identify the specific types of bacteria present in the wound, and then based on the results, determine the best treatment protocol, such as prescribing the patient with antibiotics, providing specialized wound dressings, etc. This process can take several days, during which time an infection could develop, Armstrong says.
AF imaging allows physicians to make medical decisions during wound debridement rather than waiting for test results to begin treatment.
Another advantage of the technique is that early detection of bacteria could help avoid the need for antibiotics, which can lead to prolonged wound treatment, thus avoiding antibiotic resistance.
“This real-time intervention may allow wounds to be treated more quickly and effectively,” Armstrong said.
Keck Medicine physicians are already using the technology successfully to treat patients with chronic wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers.
“We hope that AF imaging will become the standard of care for wound care in the near future, and we look forward to further research in this area,” Armstrong said.
Further information: Rachael Orkin et al., “Current and Future Directions in Fluorescence Imaging-Guided Debridement.” Advances in Wound Care (2024). DOI: 10.1089/wound.2024.0067
Provided by University of Southern California
Source: New technology “illuminates” bacteria in wounds to strengthen infection prevention (August 27, 2024) Retrieved August 27, 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-technology-bacteria-wounds-infection.html
This document is subject to copyright. It may not be reproduced without written permission, except for fair dealing for the purposes of personal study or research. The content is provided for informational purposes only.
