Prevalence of Biofilms on Surgical Suture Segments in Wounds of Dogs, Cats, and Horses

Abstract

The formation of biofilms on surgical implants is thought to play a major role in chronic infection and wound-healing disorders and has been rarely described in veterinary medicine. Due to poor and unreliable results from bacterial culturing, histology may be an economic tool for the detection of biofilms. In this study, the prevalence of biofilms on surgical suture materials and swabs with chronic wound-healing complications in dogs, cats, and horses was assessed by histologic examination using hematoxylin and eosin, Gram, and Giemsa stains, as well as periodic acid–Schiff reaction. Of the 91 tissue samples with intralesional suture material or swab residues associated with inflammation, only 2 contained bacterial colonies arranged in an extracellular polymeric matrix consistent with a biofilm. The results of this study suggest that biofilms on suture material may occur in veterinary medicine.