Purpose: The threat of MRSA and multi-drug resistant pathogens have been growing in recent years. We need a new means of countering the infectious threat and one such modality is the use of UV light for disinfection. The aim of our study is to proof the efficacy of the 222nm UV light in disinfection on patients with sacral sores. This is a first in human proof-of-concept study.

Methods: We recruited patients who were diagnosed with a sacral sore of at least 2x2 cm in dimension with no underlying osteomyelitis. Patients were subjected to 90s UV light therapy of 540 mW/cm2 sessions 2 times a week for 2 weeks for a total of 4 sessions. Pre and post UV light therapy swabs were taken after standard wound irrigation. Our primary outcome assessed was the bacterial colony-forming unit (CFU) counts for the pre and post therapy swabs.

Results: Preliminary results for the first 15 patients recruited have shown a drop in bacterial CFU counts except in 2 patients where the bacterial count increased despite UV light therapy. This result was demonstrated across 15 different species of bacteria cultured from the sacral wound. None of the 15 patients experienced any immediate side effects such as erythema or blistering from the UV light therapy sessions.

Conclusion: 222nm UV light showed efficacy in reducing bacterial counts in wounds with lower bacterial counts and fewer species. This was reflected similarly in a study done by Thai et al, which showed wounds that do not respond well to UV therapy harbor multiple species of bacteria with higher colony counts. Moving forward, we plan on increasing the power of our study by recruiting more patients.

This study is supported by DSRB application 2016/00105, NUHS-GCC Strategic Seed Grant and USHIO INC

Download