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Evaluation of an Ozone‐Based Wound Management System
Author(s) -
Denvir A.J.,
Blankenburg A.C.,
Holder I.A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
wound repair and regeneration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.847
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1524-475X
pISSN - 1067-1927
DOI - 10.1111/j.1067-1927.2004.0abstractj.x
Subject(s) - ozone , ozone therapy , sepsis , medicine , intensive care medicine , environmental science , risk analysis (engineering) , surgery , chemistry , pathology , alternative medicine , organic chemistry
The onset of infection can lead rapidly to sepsis, septic shock, and eventually death. Considering the high costs of hospitalization and the added trauma and discomfort to the patient, improved methods for infection control are needed. Ozone offers a specific solution to the problem of effective management of microbial wound contamination. Despite the advantages, several technical barriers have prevented ozone‐based disinfection treatments from becoming more widely investigated. Negative press from years of unsubstantiated medical successes has made the medical community wary of even legitimate ozone technologies. Because there has been no research into using ozone in infection prevention, much of the hardware has not been developed to the stage where the technology can be used in clinical trials. Lynntech Inc., over the past 5 years, has been working to develop a pre‐clinical ozone‐based wound management system. This new hardware uses an electrochemical ozone generator that can deliver a predetermined quantity of ozone gas to a specific wound site. Electrochemically generated ozone has been shown to be effective against a range of gram negative and gram positive bacteria and our studies with various mimetic wound systems have shown that with controlled delivery, ozone can be utilized as either a disinfectant or as a biostat. The device is well suited for hospital use as it operates of low voltage power supplies and unlike other ozone generation technologies will not interfere with other electronic equipment while it is in operation. This paper outlines both the advantages and limitations of using an ozone based system as a wound management tool and looks to the future research that needs to be performed to substantiated the initial research findings.