Medical devices including, for example, intracorporeal or extracorporeal devices (e.g., catheters), temporary or permanent implants, stents, vascular grafts, anastomotic devices, aneurysm repair devices, embolic devices, and implantable devices (e.g., orthopedic or dental implants) are commonly infected with opportunistic bacteria and other infectious micro-organisms, in some cases necessitating the removal of implantable devices. Such infections can also result in illness, long hospital stays, or even death. The prevention of biofilm formation and infection on indwelling catheters, orthopedic implants, pacemakers, contact lenses, stents, vascular grafts, embolic devices, aneurysm repair devices and other medical devices is therefore highly desirous.
Enhancement of resistance of biomaterials to bacterial growth and promotion of rapid tissue integration and grafting of biomaterial surfaces are both areas of research. However, despite advances in sterilization and aseptic procedures as well as advances in biomaterials, bacterial and other microbial infection remains a serious issue in the use of medical implants. For example, greater than half of all nosocomial infections are caused by implanted medical devices. These infections are often the result of biofilms forming at the insertion site of the medical implant. Unfortunately, such infections are often resistant to innate immune system responses as well as to conventional antibiotic treatments. It will be appreciated that such infections are problematic not just in treatment of humans, but also in treatment of a number of other organisms as well.
A welcome addition to the art would be medical devices having enhanced surface areas and structures/devices comprising such, as well as methods of using enhanced area surfaces in medical devices. The current invention provides these and other benefits which will be apparent upon examination of the following.