ACTIVITY OF SILVER IONS IN DIFFERENT MEDIA

A major problem in medicine is the large number of infections associat ed with implanted and indwelling devices. Silver coating of medical de vices is believed to preserve infection resistance. Several in vitro a nd animal studies as well as clinical observations on silver-nylon, si lver-intramedullary pins, silver-oxide-Foley catheters and silver-coat ed vascular protheses have been interpreted as successful for the prop hylaxis of foreign-body infections. Nevertheless, these products have not been established in clinical use. In this study we have been able to present physico-chemical and pharmacological data as well as simple microbiological experiments explaining the reduced antimicrobial acti vity of silver-ions in some biological fluids.