Preventing Biofilm Formation on Biomedical Surfaces

This chapter introduces the problem of biofilm formation on material surfaces, which is not only important in the biomedical field, but also for other industrial applications including food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturing. The different steps and the most important factors related to the formation of a biofilm (e.g., conditioning film, physicochemical characteristics of biomaterial surface, characteristics of the microorganism, environmental factors, etc.) are discussed. The discussion is followed by an overview of various plausible strategies that are useful to prevent biofilm formation on biomaterial surfaces, i.e., presurgery precautionary measures, the use of antimicrobial releasing materials, surface engineering methods, and an anti-biofilm approach. Surface modification by plasma processing is introduced as a particularly versatile surface engineering approach to prevent biofilm formation, and the important role of plasma processing of polymers in the prevention of biofouling and biofilm formation is emphasized. Finally, a specific case study is presented, which discusses the use of plasma-deposited poly(ethylene oxide)-like films for the prevention of biofilm formation.

KUMAR Virendra;  RAUSCHER Hubert;  BRETAGNOL Frederic;  AREFI-KHONSARI Farzaneh;  PULPYTEL Jerome;  COLPO Pascal;  ROSSI Francois; 

2010-10-19

Wiley-VCH

JRC54767

978-3-527-32654-9,