New therapy introduced in Canada to reduce surgical infections

An innovative therapy at a Vancouver hospital has proved highly successful in reducing surgical site infections (SSIs), local health authorities say. Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is the first hospital in North America to use the new therapy, which has reduced SSIs cases by about 40 percent each year, according to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), a regional health authority in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Compared with traditional pre-surgical pharmaceutical therapies, the new therapy, called photodisinfection technology, developed by a Vancouver-based company, is a novel, non-antibiotic method that kills potentially harmful bacteria harbored in a patient's nasal passages with non-thermal light energy, VCH said earlier this week. The non-drug therapy trial at the hospital combined photodisinfection with chlorhexidine body wipes prior to surgery to decrease a patient's bacterial load on their skin and in their nostrils to reduce the risk of SSIs. More than 5,000 patients were treated with this combination therapy, and actual occurrences of SSIs dropped from an average 85 cases to 50 cases. In addition, the cases of readmission due to SSI also dropped, from four to 1.25 cases each month. The lower SSI occurrence rate would benefit patients and reduce their morbidity, said Dr. Elizabeth Bryce, Regional Medical Director of VCH's Infection Control Unit.