Correlation Engine 2.0
Clear Search sequence regions


Sizes of these terms reflect their relevance to your search.

V.A.C.(®) GranuFoam™ therapy is regularly used in the surgical therapy of infected wounds and soft tissue injuries. Silver nanoparticles can destroy bacterial cell walls and inhibit enzymes for cell replication. Silver dressings are therefore successfully used for many indications in wound therapy. In this study, we investigated the antimicrobial potency of ionic silver released from the silver-coated V.A.C.(®) GranuFoam™ during vacuum therapy. Silver dressing was exposed to agar plates populated with bacteria to measure silver release. A total of 15 agar plates colonised with either Staphylococcus aureus populations or with Staphylococcus epidermidis, were loaded with V.A.C. GranuFoam Silver(®) Dressing polyurethane foam (KCI, San Antonio, Texas). Each of 13 pieces of silver-coated foam was applied to an agar plate. Two plates were loaded with conventional black foam without any coating. After connecting to a vacuum pump, the vacuum therapy of the 15 plates lasted 5 days. The zone of inhibition of bacterial growth around the foam was measured daily. Silver release was also determined as a function of time. At each time point, there was evidence of silver in the agar independent of bacterial colonisation. The S. aureus agar showed a consecutive increase in silver concentration from baseline upon 48h after exposure to the negative pressure of V.A.C. therapy. An increasing mean silver level after 48, 72 and 96h was measured under V.A.C. therapy with a peak value after 120h. In contrast, the results from the S. epidermidis plates did not follow a linear pattern. At the beginning of vacuum therapy, we documented a rise in silver concentration. After 48-96h, the silver levels fluctuated. A maximum zone of inhibition in both bacterial colonised plates (S. aureus and S. epidermidis) was found 39h after the start of the V.A.C. GranuFoam Silver(®) therapy. From our results, we confirmed the antimicrobial effect of the silver ions against S. aureus and S. epidermidis under continuous V.A.C. GranuFoam(®) Silver therapy with a negative pressure of 25mmHg. Furthermore we could quantify the amounts of silver, which were released from the foam under negative pressure as a function of time. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Saskia Sachsenmaier, Andreas Peschel, Ingmar Ipach, Torsten Kluba. Antibacterial potency of V.A.C. GranuFoam Silver(®) Dressing. Injury. 2013 Oct;44(10):1363-7


PMID: 23928285

View Full Text