Millions of medical devices are implanted in patients each year, and while the majority are successful procedures, some can become infected with bacteria. The type of bacterial infection involving a medical implant can create a biofilm that is extremely hard to kill, thus causing the patient to likely have to remove the device, take the time to heal and get it re-implanted.
Associate Professor Timothy Bigelow plans to use ultrasound therapy to combat these biofilms on medical devices; and has chosen hernia mesh as a good candidate for a proof-of-concept example.
“The hernia mesh will be targeted with very high intensity ultrasound that creates kind of a bubble cloud right at the focal regions,” Bigelow said. “And we will show this therapy can break up the biofilm; get it back to free-floating bacteria, where antibiotics and the immune system can take care of it.”
Another aspect of his National Institute of Health funded project is working on developing a surgical mesh material that is easily viewable by CT and ultrasound imaging.