“An infected wound is due to bacteria in the wound.”\u00a0 Simple enough statement, right?\u00a0 Most of us, even those that are not medical professionals, understand this point.\u00a0 The truth underpinning this statement, however, is so much more complex.\u00a0 First, let us understand just the diversity of the “microbiome,” or the bacterial world.\u00a0 There are ~30,000 different species of bacteria (not including fungi and other microbes that cause infection.\u00a0 Of these species, ~1,000 colonize and potentially infect the human skin and soft tissues.\u00a0 More importantly, as I’ve discussed previously, these bacteria may be found in various forms of interaction with one another.\u00a0 They may be “motile,” which means that they are individual microbes free-floating in the wound.\u00a0 They may be “sessile,” which means they are attached to a surface.\u00a0 These types of bacteria classically have been diagnosed with a traditional culture.\u00a0 However, there is a third form of bacteria, the biofilm.\u00a0 In this form, bacteria “clump together” and form a colony.\u00a0 They become imbedded in an extracellular matrix composed of\u00a0exopolysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids.\u00a0 The biofilm provides the bacteria with certain benefits, such as increased resistance to antibiotics and makes them difficult to diagnose with standard techniques such as the culture.\u00a0 This means that a biofilm might persist undetected and hinder wound healing.\u00a0 Luckily, certain technologies have become available that may asist int he early diagnosis of biofilm in a wound.\u00a0 One such technology is the MolecuLight i:X.\u00a0 This technology out of Toronto in Canada is a patented bacterial fluorescence imaging system.\u00a0 It does not require any dye or injections, just a dark room.\u00a0 The device is precisely calibrated to identify the clinically relevant bacteria.\u00a0 That is, it visualizes the 10 most common bacterial genera that cause wound infections at a concentration of 10,000 CFU\/gram.\u00a0 The technology works by emitting a violet extraction signal at the wound.\u00a0 This stimulates certain proteins in the bacteria, such as porphyrins, to fluoresce.\u00a0 This signal is captures using a proprietary filter in the device that allows visualization of the bacterial fluorescence.\u00a0 These colors are often cyan or red.\u00a0 This serves as a proxy for biofilm, which is processes by the device and provides the doctor with an image of the biofilm!\u00a0 This allows the doctor to make very important clinical decisions, such as whether to initiate antimicrobial therapy and what sort of wound care regimen to utilize.\u00a0 Also, the device may help guide debridement.\u00a0 Here at Wound Care Experts, I am pleased to offer this technology as the first in the greater Las Vegas region!\u00a0 I personally like to be as conservative and tissue-sparing as possible, due to the pain debridement causes patient and the desire to leave “healthy” tissue intact.\u00a0 With the MolecuLight, I can be even more focused with my debridements.\u00a0 This allows me to perform an even higher level of “Cadillac Care” that my patients have grown to expect at Wound Care Experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“An infected wound is due to bacteria in the wound.”\u00a0 Simple enough statement, right?\u00a0 Most of us, even those that are not medical professionals, understand this point.\u00a0 The truth underpinning this statement, however, is so much more complex.\u00a0 First, let…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n