Abstract

SYNERGISTIC EFFECT OF LASER IRRADIATION AND PHOTOSENSITIZERS ON PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ISOLATED FROM WOUNDS

Mohemid Maddallah Al-Jebouri*, Yousif Mumtaz Naaom Al-Faham

ABSTRACT

Introduction: It is widely agreed that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the major opportunistic human pathogens that causes serious and sometimes fatal infections particularly among immunocompromised hosts. This bacterium is an ubiquitous microorganism and it’s wide diffusion is of great importance in hospital environment where patients may acquire the bacteria from common environmental sources by different means of transmission. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at surgery ward in Tikrit teaching hospital of Tikrit city. A total of 54 swabs were taken from patients suffering from surgical and burn wound infections. The effect of low-power diode laser light with or without photochemical agents such as toluidine blue O, providine-iodine and tetracycline on total viable counts (TVC’s) was determined. Results: It was found that providine-iodine, tetracycline and providine-iodine+tetracycline were effective photosensitizers atconcentrations of 1024, 2048 and 512:1024 μg/ml at 16, 4 and 2 minutes of exposure respectively. These exposure combinations along with laser irradiation were abled to sensitize Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Conclusions: It was concluded that there was no strong or consistent linear trend between exposure time and bacterial reduction. This likely indicated that agent type and interaction effects are far more influential than time alone. The present analysis of the data revealed that both time and agent choice significantly influenced bacterial viability, and Laser and photosensitizer combinations like laser+ toluidine blue O or laser+ tetracycline revealed strongest bactericidal effect.

Keywords: Wound, infection, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, photosensitizers, tetracycline, laser.