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Phage therapy as a glimmer of hope in the fight against the recurrence or emergence of surgical site bacterial infections

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Abstract

Purpose

Over the last decade, surgery rates have risen alarmingly, and surgical-site infections are expanding these concerns. In spite of advances in infection control practices, surgical infections continue to be a significant cause of death, prolonged hospitalization, and morbidity. As well as the presence of bacterial infections and their antibiotic resistance, biofilm formation is one of the challenges in the treatment of surgical wounds.

Methods

This review article was based on published studies on inpatients and laboratory animals receiving phage therapy for surgical wounds, phage therapy for tissue and bone infections treated with surgery to prevent recurrence, antibiotic-resistant wound infections treated with phage therapy, and biofilm-involved surgical wounds treated with phage therapy which were searched without date restrictions.

Results

It has been shown in this review article that phage therapy can be used to treat surgical-site infections in patients and animals, eliminate biofilms at the surgical site, prevent infection recurrence in wounds that have been operated on, and eradicate antibiotic-resistant infections in surgical wounds, including multi-drug resistance (MDR), extensively drug resistance (XDR), and pan-drug resistance (PDR). A cocktail of phages and antibiotics can also reduce surgical-site infections more effectively than phages alone.

Conclusion

In light of these encouraging results, clinical trials and research with phages will continue in the near future to treat surgical-site infections, biofilm removal, and antibiotic-resistant wounds, all of which could be used to prescribe phages as an alternative to antibiotics.

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Data availability

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Majid Taati Moghadam

  2. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Mojtahedi

  3. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Shakiba Salamy

  4. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Razieh Shahbazi

  5. Student Research Committee, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Naghmeh Satarzadeh

  6. Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Naghmeh Satarzadeh

  7. Vice President of Health and Executive Vice President, Rey Health Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Majid Delavar

  8. Razi Hospital, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

    Mohammad Taghi Ashoobi

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Contributions

MTM and NS: designed the study and helped to wrote article; MTA: drafted and edited the manuscript; AM and MD provided oversight and verification of the manuscript; SS and RS edited the English language of the article. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Taghi Ashoobi.

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Ethical approval was not given because we conducted reviews that did not collect personal information from patients.

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Moghadam, M.T., Mojtahedi, A., Salamy, S. et al. Phage therapy as a glimmer of hope in the fight against the recurrence or emergence of surgical site bacterial infections. Infection 52, 385–402 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-024-02178-0

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