The recent progress is starting to be efficiently integrated into the development of customized surfaces with specific properties, able to inhibit microbial attachment and biofilm formation in order to limit microbial colonization of medical surfaces and indwelling devices and to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with such severe infections.
At 4 AM, when I learned the news, I sobbed hysterically on a cot in a mostly empty, eerily illuminated makeshift medical tent, every surface of which was covered with a fine sifting of alkaline playa dust.
Surface of medical devices, regardless of their different synthetic composition could also be colonized by different fungal species, the most recognized fungal infections being those related to Candida species.
In humans, Gram-positive bacterial infections are more prevalent than Gram-negative ones, resulting in biofilm development on the surface of medical devices, facilitated by certain human blood components.
Though the mechanisms of resistance of Candida species have not been completely elucidated, an attractive hypothesis is that biofilm formation on the surface of medical implants may confer protection to the pathogen [ 2].
Candida albicans forms biofilms on the surface of implantable medical devices, as a consequence hospital-acquired infections by C. albicans have become a cause of major health concerns.
High kinetic energies (a few 100 eV) then guide charged metallic ions or plasma to the surface of the medical device.
The IPD process creates a surface-engineered nanostructure (with features usually below 100 nm) by first using a vacuum to remove all contaminants, then guiding charged metallic ions or plasma to the surface of a medical device at ambient temperature.
In multimicrobial biofilms containing Candida albicans and S. aureus, such as that occurring on the surface of indwelling medical devices, resistance of S. aureus to vancomycin is higher in the polymicrobial biofilm.
And if I want to become the sort of doctor who peers beneath the surface of modern medical culture in order to change it for the better, then I'll be drawing upon the humanities for the rest of my life.
