Improving Wound Healing and Infection Control in Long-term Care with Bacterial Fluorescence Imaging

Area of Science:

• Wound healing research
• Medical imaging technology
• Infection control in long-term care

Background:

• High bacterial burden impedes wound healing in complex, older patients in long-term care (LTC) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).
• Untreated bacterial loads can lead to severe complications like sepsis.
• Many bacterial infections in these settings are asymptomatic, complicating diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of point-of-care fluorescence (FL) imaging on bacterial loads.
• To inform customized wound treatment plans for LTC/SNF patients.
• To compare healing and infection outcomes with and without FL imaging.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective pre/postinterventional cohort study design.
• Inclusion of 167 pressure injuries from 100 Medicare beneficiaries.
• Comparison of outcomes between standard-of-care (SOC) and FL imaging-guided management.

Main Results:

• The FL imaging cohort showed significantly improved healing rates (+71.0%) by 12 weeks compared to SOC.
• Wounds in the FL cohort healed faster (27.7% quicker, -4.8 weeks on average).
• Infection-related complications decreased by 75.3% with FL imaging, with a shift towards topical antibiotics.

Conclusions:

• Fluorescence imaging-guided wound management enhances healing and infection control in complex LTC/SNF patients.
• Early, objective bacterial detection facilitates proactive, localized treatment.
• FL imaging offers comparable outcomes to studies in less complex populations, supporting its use in real-world settings.