Flash of red light up the nose is being tested to stop post-op infections

Shining a red light into a patient’s nose is being tested as a new way to prevent infections in surgical incisions.

The new approach, which is being tested in a UK hospital, builds on previous research showing that this type of phototherapy can cause a reaction within bacteria that kills them.

Our noses have all kinds of bacteria, viruses and fungi living inside them. While they are normally harmless, if they enter a surgical incision they can colonize and cause infection. For example, about a third of us carry Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in our noses, which is a leading cause of surgical site infections.

How bacteria get from the nose to the incision site is not fully understood, but surgical site infections are common, affecting at least 5 percent of people who undergo a procedure, according to the National Institute for Health. Excellence in Health and Care. These infections can increase the length of hospital stays: A patient with a surgical site infection will spend, on average, seven to 11 more days in the hospital, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

They can affect recovery, causing pain and other complications.

This is why patients’ noses are typically “decolonized” before surgery, usually with an antibiotic cream called mupirocin. But in addition to its time-consuming application, there are also concerns about antibiotic resistance.

Now doctors in the UK hope that using a device that emits red light into the nose will be a viable alternative. In a six-month trial, 500 patients at Pontefract Hospital in West Yorkshire are receiving the treatment, a form of what is known as photodynamic therapy (PDT), which uses a Steriwave machine in a single five-minute session before suffering injuries. in the hip or knee. surgery.

They will first apply a light-sensitive gel to each nostril, using a cotton swab. They then place a small, thin tube just inside each nostril; This is turned on and when light hits the gel, it causes an “oxidative explosion”.

This is when oxygen is generated within the bacterial cell. “It’s not like the oxygen we breathe, but a toxic version that can damage DNA and cell membranes,” explains Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading.

Additionally, the way light-based treatments damage multiple parts of the bacterial cell makes it harder for them to acquire resistance, adds Dr. Andrew Edwards, senior lecturer in molecular microbiology at Imperial College London (neither of experts participate in the trial). “This raises hopes that this approach could become routine.”

And since the human cells in the nose “are very resistant and continually shed, any damage they suffer is inconsequential,” he adds.

The manufacturer of the red light device, Ondine Biomedical, claims that it kills bacteria in five minutes, and clinical trials showed that it “eliminated or significantly decreased” Staphylococcus aureus in 86 percent of carriers.