Biofilm is present in chronic wounds anywhere from 60% to 100% of the time. Biofilm has multiple colony defenses that must be overcome to manage chronic wounds effectively.
Identifying the microbiota producing a chronic infection requires molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction and sequencing. Since wound biofilm is polymicrobial, where one-and-done strategies work for the planktonic bacteria phenotype, biofilm management requires patience, persistence, and multiple concurrent therapies. Therefore, there can be no half measures in treating wound biofilm.
Participants in this webinar will be able to:
- Describe how chronic wounds are chronic infections caused by biofilm.
- Understand how biofilm infection causes exudate, accumulation of material on the wound bed (slough), abnormal wound beds, and non-healing of wounds.
- Describe how the characteristics of wounds support identification of the presence of biofilm in a chronic wound.
- Understand how early intervention and aggressive management with multiple simultaneous treatment strategies are most successful.
Biofilm-based wound management consists of aggressive initial treatment with inclusion of many strategies such as debridement, antibiofilm agents, antiseptics, antibiotics, and management of comorbidities. This webinar will discuss the role of treatment modalities in the effective management of biofilm, as well as clinical presentation of wounds in discontinuing intervention as control of the wound (less exudate, less slough, etc.) is obtained.
