The new guideline is aimed at healthcare professionals and the recommendation has been made to the journal JAMA (“Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 2017”.) The focus is with surgical sutures. These are medical devices designed used to hold body tissues together after an injury or surgery. The use involves applying a needle with an attached length of thread. Following this, surgical knots are used to secure the sutures.
With guideline the use of triclosan coated products is in conjunction with other best practices such as requiring patients to shower or bathe (full body) with soap (antimicrobial or nonantimicrobial) the night before the operative day.
One innovation in the field is from the company Ethicon. The company is involved with suture technology, according to the medical review site QMed. According to Liza Ovington, Franchise Medical Director for Ethicon: the CDC’s updated guideline “demonstrates their commitment to improving the quality of patient care and will ultimately help save many lives.”
The company has a product called Coated Vicryl Plus Antibacterial Suture. This product comes coated with triclosan, which is designed to inhibit bacteria commonly associated with surgical site infections such as the variant of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to a range of antimicrobial drugs. The product activates when it comes into direct contact with bacteria, and the microbe takes in the product directly through its cell wall.
Triclosan is an antibacterial and antifungal agent. It is prepared from an organic compound is a white powdered solid with a slight aromatic, phenolic odor. The mechanisms for killing bacteria include multiple cytoplasmic and membrane targets.
Speaking about the use of the coating to the website Drug Delivery, Professor Charles Edmiston from Froedtert Hospital said: “Triclosan-coated sutures should be considered as part of an institution’s comprehensive evidence-based approach to reducing the risk of surgical site infections.”
Surgical site infections are classes of infections following relating to an incision or organ or space, which occurs after surgery. Such infections remain a risk to patients, even where good asepsis is practiced.
