BIOFILM DEVELOPMENT IN TIME ON A SILICONE VOICE PROSTHESIS - A CASE-STUDY

Voice prostheses from silicone elastomers become rapidly colonised by a mixed biofilm of bacteria and yeasts. In this study, microorganisms were isolated from biofilms on explanted prostheses after having been in place for various time intervals ranging from 1 to 67 d. The isolat es were examined for their identity, adhesion to hexadecane and electr ophoretic mobility. Bacteria from early (shorter than 8 d) and late (l onger than 8 d) explants could not be classified according to their ta xonomy, hydrophobicity or electrophoretic mobility. However, the yeast s clearly revealed a dominance of only hydrophilic Candida albicans is olates from early explants and only hydrophobic C. tropicalis isolates from late explants. These findings may be of significance for the dev elopment of strategies to control mixed biofilms on biomaterials.