Cath Lab Digest

Many host impairments interfere with the healing trajectory of chronic wounds, but even when these are controlled, healing may fail to progress. There is a growing realization that bacterial bioburden, present in all chronic wounds, is a contributor to healing failure. Until recently, adequate tools to diagnose bioburden have been unavailable. While standard microbiology cultures could identify the organisms on the surface of the wound, in more than 80% of cases, they were unable to identify the organisms present in the bioburden1.