Biological Therapy on Infected Traumatic Wounds: A Case-Control Study.

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Wound Healing
• Microbiology

Background:

• Traumatic wounds present significant surgical challenges due to size, contamination, and infection, potentially leading to severe complications.
• Polymicrobial infections are common in traumatic wounds, necessitating effective antimicrobial strategies.
• Bacteriophage therapy is emerging as a promising alternative for treating complex wound infections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of topical bacteriophage therapy (BT) versus conventional therapy (CT) for large, infected traumatic wounds.
• To compare healing times, sterility achievement, and hospitalization duration between BT and CT groups.
• To assess the cost-effectiveness of bacteriophage therapy in managing traumatic wound infections.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 54 patients (27 per group) with traumatic wounds aged 12-60 years, conducted from Sept 2018 to July 2020.
• Bacteriophage therapy involved applying customized bacteriophages post-debridement, while the control group received conventional dressing.
• Bacterial isolation from wound swabs and tissue biopsies guided phage selection, applied until wound sterility.

Main Results:

• Topical bacteriophage therapy demonstrated significantly faster and improved wound healing compared to conventional therapy.
• Wound sterilization and complete granulation were achieved in half the time with BT versus CT.
• Patients receiving BT had halved hospital stays (20 days vs. 40 days) and incurred one-third the expenditure.

Conclusions:

• Topical bacteriophage therapy is an efficient and effective treatment for clearing infections in traumatic wounds.
• BT offers a shorter treatment duration and is more cost-effective than conventional therapies for infected traumatic wounds.
• Bacteriophage therapy represents a revolutionary advancement in managing challenging wound infections.