A Highly Efficacious Electrical Biofilm Treatment System for Combating Chronic Wound Bacterial Infections

Biofilm infection has a high prevalence in chronic wounds and can delay wound healing. Current treatment using debridement and antibiotic administration imposes a significant burden on patients and healthcare systems. To address their limitations, a highly efficacious electrical antibiofilm treatment system is described in this paper. This system uses high-intensity current (75 mA cm^-2 ) to completely debride biofilm above the wound surface and enhance antibiotic delivery into biofilm-infected wounds simultaneously. Combining these two effects, this system uses short treatments (≤2 h) to reduce bacterial count of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) biofilm-infected ex vivo skin wounds from 10¹⁰ to 10^5.2 colony-forming units (CFU) g^-1 . Taking advantage of the hydrogel ionic circuit design, this system enhances the in vivo safety of high-intensity current application compared to conventional devices. The in vivo antibiofilm efficacy of the system is tested using a diabetic mouse-based wound infection model. MRSA biofilm bacterial count decreases from 10^9.0 to 10^4.6 CFU g^-1 at 1 day post-treatment and to 10^3.3 CFU g^-1 at 7 days post-treatment, both of which are below the clinical threshold for infection. Overall, this novel technology provides a quick, safe, yet highly efficacious treatment to chronic wound biofilm infections.