Strategies to Prevent Bacterial Adhesion on Biomaterials - Biomimetics: Advancing Nanobiomaterials and Tissue Engineering - page 162

Longer healing time
(6 weeks or longer) due
to slow host response

Lack of antibacterial
property of implants,
leading to prosthetic
infection

Revision surgery due
to toxicity/infection,
aseptic loosening

Global
challenges

Lack of
translational
research and
interdisciplinary
approach

Bone-mimicking
properties in terms
of physical and
biocompatibility

Manufacturability to complex shapes
with desired porous architecture in bone-
like compositionally similar materials

Figure 7.1 Summary of some of the major challenges driving the research on
biomaterial, illustrating the need to develop material with bone − mimicking and

antibacterial properties (adapted from ref.[4]).

of impant failure and can cause prolonged hospitalization or even some-
times death. It is therefore concluded that infections restrict the long term

use of implanted devices [11]. No fully effective treatment technique is
available to cure such infection, therefore, the infected implanted device is
surgically removed [9].
Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis, highly resistant towards anti-
biotics, cause local infections such as wounds, as well as prosthetic infec-
tion [12, 13]. Some main sources of bacterial infections in patients are
hospital environment, surgical devices, contaminated disinfectants and
already present distant local infections [14]. Therefore, innovative strate-
gies are needed to develop the drugs, scaffolds or external treatment tech-
niques that can be directly applied to the site of infections with minimal
side effects, along with protecting the patient from bacterial infection.
Prosthetic infection can be reduced either by modifying the biomaterial
surface with antibacterial agents like Ag and ZnO, and/or by application
of external fi elds as shown in Figure 7.2.
The current research has become fascinated by the use of inorganic
antimicrobial agents for the control of microbial infection. Antimicrobial
properties have been confi rmed for metallic nanoparticles and metal
oxide powders [15]. The inorganic materials can be used in different
forms, such as powders coated on cellulose fi bers, or as a part of organic/
inorganic composite [16, 17]. The potential application of inorganic anti-
microbial agents are leading the way because of their safety and stability,

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