The Antimicrobial Efficacy of Topically Applied Mafenide Acetate, Citric Acid and Wound Irrigation Solutions Lavanox and Prontosan against .

Since burn wound infections caused by (PA) lead to major complications and sepsis, this study evaluates the antimicrobial efficacy of the wound irrigation solutions Prontosan (PRT), Lavanox (LAV), citric acid (CA) and mafenide acetate (MA) using microbiology assays and an ex vivo skin wound model. In suspension assays, all the solutions showed significant reductions in bacterial number (log reduction: CA 5.77; LAV 4.91; PRT 4.74; MA 1.23). The biofilm assay revealed that PRT and LAV reduced biofilm formation by 25% after a 15 min treatment, while PRT was most effective after a 24 h treatment (68%). The number of PA in biofilms measured directly after a 15 min treatment was reduced most effectively with CA and LAV (log reductions ~2.5), whereas after a 24 h treatment, all solutions achieved only 1.36-1.65 log reductions. In the skin wound model, PRT and LAV provided the highest bacterial reduction after a 15 min treatment (log reduction 1.8-1.9), while MA was more effective after a 22 h treatment (log reduction 3.6). The results demonstrated the antimicrobial efficacy of all solutions against PA. Further investigation is needed to explore the potential clinical applications of a combination or alternating use of these solutions for infection prophylaxis and treatment of wound infections caused by PA.