Voice
rehabilitation with voice prostheses is a standard therapy in laryngectomized
patients. Biofilm formation on the surface of the
voice prostheses causes device failure and requires frequent replacements.
Studies analyzing the biofilm
of voice prostheses have mainly focused on fungi and aerobic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria as an integral part of the
biofilms on voice prostheses have not been
investigated yet.
Betl
et al of the Department of Periodontology, Bernhard Gottlieb School of
Dentistry, Vienna, Austria, performed aprospective pilot study on the occurrence of anaerobic and microaerophilic pathogens in biofilm formation on voice prostheses.
Biofilm
samples of 15 voice prostheses were analyzed using a polymerase chain
reaction-based hybridization method, searching for the existence of 11 selected
anaerobic and microaerophilic pathogens.
In
80% of the voice prostheses, at least one and up to 10 of the tested bacteria were
identified. Fusobacterium nucleatum
was the most common isolate (73%). Other frequently occurring pathogens were Treponema denticola (40%), Tannerella forsythia (33%), and Eikenella corrodens (33%). There was no
correlation between the number of identified bacteria and the indwelling times
(mean, 127 days; maximum, 344 days; minimum, 22 days).
This
is the first study showing the presence of anaerobic and microaerophilic potential
pathogens as part of the biofilm
formation on the surface of voice prostheses. Further studies are warranted to
find out if these organisms may be responsible for accelerated biofilm formation and reduced lifetime of
the voice prostheses.
Anaerobic biofilm
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