In vitro resistance to bacterial biofilm formation on coated fluoroplastictympanostomy tubes

Bacterial biofilm formation has been implicated in persistent posttympanost omy otorrhea and irreversible tube contamination. The use of a tympanostomy tube with a resistance to biofilm formation by the most common organisms a ssociated with persistent infection may decrease the incidence of chronic o torrhea and the need for tube removal. In this investigation, scanning elec tron microscopy was used to compare a phosphorylcholine-coated fluoroplasti c tympanostomy tube to plain fluoroplastic and silver oxide-impregnated flu oroplastic for resistance to biofilm formation after in vitro incubation wi th Staphylococcus aureus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Only a biofilm from Pse odomonas formed on the untreated fluoroplastic tubes, whereas the silver ox ide-impregnated tubes developed biofilms from both S aureus and P aeruginos a. In contrast, the coated fluoroplastic tube showed resistance to both sta phylococcal and pseudomonal biofilm adhesion. This is the first study to de monstrate the effect of a surface treatment of fluoroplastic as a method to inhibit biofilm formation by both S aureus and P aeroginosa. This reinforc es our previous studies showing that surface-adherence properties such as c harge or slickness or both may be more beneficial than antibacterial treatm ents in preventing film adhesion.