Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy in the Nasal Decolonization of Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients: A Pilot Randomized Trial

Infections are an important cause of mortality among patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis. Staphylococcus aureus is a frequent etiological agent, and previous nasal colonization is a risk factor for infection. Repeated antimicrobial decolonization reduces infection in this population but can induce antibiotic resistance. We compared photodynamic therapy, a promising bactericidal treatment that does not induce resistance, to mupirocin treatment among nasal carriers of S aureus.

Randomized controlled pilot study.

34 patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis who had nasal carriage of S aureus.

Patients were randomly assigned to decolonization with a single application of photodynamic therapy (wavelength of 660nm, 400mW/cm², 300 seconds, methylene blue 0.01%) or with a topical mupirocin regimen (twice a day for 5 days).

Nasal swabs were collected at time 0 (when the carrier state was identified), directly after treatment completion, 1 month after treatment, and 3 months after treatment. Bacterial isolates were subjected to proteomic analysis to identify the species present, and antimicrobial susceptibility was characterized.

All 17 participants randomized to photodynamic therapy and 13 of 17 (77%) randomized to mupirocin were adherent to treatment. Directly after treatment was completed, 12 participants receiving photodynamic therapy (71%) and 13 participants treated with mupirocin (77%) had cultures that were negative for S aureus (risk ratio, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.61-1.38]; P=0.9). Of the patients who had negative cultures directly after completion of photodynamic therapy, 67% were recolonized within 3 months. There were no adverse events in the photodynamic therapy group.

Testing was restricted to assessing nasal colonization; infectious complications were not assessed.

Photodynamic therapy is a feasible approach to treating nasal carriage of S aureus. Future larger studies should be conducted to determine whether photodynamic therapy is equivalent to the standard of care with mupirocin.

Government grant (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development process 3146682020-9).

Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with study number NCT04047914.