CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF A NOVEL IN VITRO CHRONIC WOUND BIOFILM MODEL

OP16 CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF A NOVEL IN VITRO CHRONIC WOUND BIOFILM MODEL Jan Lorenzen1 , Yijuan Xu1 , Monika Jonikaite2 , Xiaofeng Chen2 , Thomas Bjarnsholt3,4 , Klaus Kirketerp5 , Trine Rolighed Thomsen1,2 1Danish Technological Institute, Life Science, Århus c, Denmark, 2 , Center for Microbial Communities, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg, Denmark, 3 , Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4 , Department of Clinical Microbiology, Rigshospitalet, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5Center for Wound Healing, Bispebjerg Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 19/11/2020 Free Paper Session: Antimicrobials, Infection, Devices & Intervention and Wound Assessment Aim: Many dressings and treatments address infected chronic wounds, yet their treatment remains challenging. While we have succeeded in the development of a two-species (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) in vitro chronic wound biofilm model useful for screening of novel antimicrobial wound dressings, the clinical relevance of the obtained data has not been documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of data obtained by in vitro test methods. Method: To evaluate the clinical relevance of data from our novel in vitro semi-solid biofilm model for infected chronic wounds the perceived clinical effect as reported by expert clinicians was compared to in vitro performance of an array of bandages containing either no active compounds or antimicrobial ingredients. A regular semi-solid biofilm model was included for comparison. Results / Discussion: The two models resulted in similar rankings of the bandages. The reduction in microbial numbers obtained in the novel chronic wound biofilm model was markedly smaller than found in the regular model and seemed to be more realistic as to clinically observed effects. Furthermore, these rankings were in overall accordance with the perceived clinical performance of the bandages, with the top-performing item as determined in vitro as a notable exception, as this bandage was perceived less effective by the clinicians. A follow-up prospective study using objective outcome criteria could be warranted. Conclusion: The novel chronic wound biofilm model seems to give a realistic estimation of the clinical performance of antimicrobial products for treating infected chronic wounds.