Biofilm. What is it and why do you care?
When I mentioned biofilm to my doctor friends, no one had heard of it. Is it some new scar treatment? Is it an environmental thing? It sounds good- bio, green, high tech. But it is not good. It is bad and causes some of the issues plaguing surgeons and patients who have any kind of implant.
First, lets start with why you should care. Wounds are a huge issue in our society. Chronic nonhealing ulcers, diabetic feet, osteomyelitis infections. You, healthy Palo Alto reader, are sitting at home, thinking “Well, that is not me.” No, maybe. Not yet. But as you age and your tissue breaks down faster and is harder to heal, it can become an issue. And if any of you have hip implants, knee implants, chin implants, breast implants- any foreign object placed in your body, biofilm is incredibly important.
I spoke with a friend recently who had a broken ankle as I was excitedly relating the information I got at this meeting, and she said, “My doctor told me my foot is not infected.” I would think she is wrong. There is a big difference between active infection- that rip roaring, red, pus filled infection, and biofilm. Biofilm is subtle. Low grade. But affecting you.
Also, many think the biofilm of chronic wounds acts just like cancer does. It operates outside of host immunity. (In english that means that our body’s defenses don’t attack it. We let it stay there). It hijacks our body to do its work. And it grows and mutates. So understanding biofilm may lead to advances in how to treat cancer.
Biofilm is so exciting there is an institute dedicated to it. This is a new fronteir of infection control and medicine.
So that is why we care. WHAT IS BIOFILM?
There are two basic ways bacteria affect your body.
- Infection. This is where bacteria attacks you, it comes fast, and there are lots of symptoms. As I stated before, this is what you think of when you think of infection. Red, tender, swollen, pus. It responds to antibiotics and gets better.
- Biofilm. This is where bacteria attacks you but you don’t really know it. It colonizes. It hijacks your cellular functions, but does so in a less aggressive way. Biofilm allows your body to keep operating, but not as well. This is thought to be why people have those nagging wounds that won’t heal. It is implicated in capsular contracture for breast implants. And it is hard to treat.
Why does biofilm stay? Why doesn’t your body break it down? Why don’t antibiotics treat it?
Ah. The stuff for another blog.