April 26–29, 2009
Gaylord Texan Resort
Dallas, Texas
www.sawc.net

More than 380 abstracts were submitted for presentation at the 2009 SAWC/WHS. Of those, 24 were accepted for oral presentation. The following is a preview of a few abstracts that will be presented during sessions 29–31, and sessions 42–44. The accepted poster presentations may be viewed throughout the entire meeting and during the scheduled poster session, which will be held Monday April 27 from 7:30am–9:30am. The 2nd annual Poster Gala and Awards will be held from 7:00pm–8:30pm on Monday April 27.

To access the entire SAWC/WHS brochure, including session titles, faculty, and abstracts, visit www.sawc.net.

Topographical localization of bacterial biofilms in a porcine skin explant wound model
Priscilla Phillips; Edith Sampson; Gregory Schultz

     The presence of persistent bacterial biofilms is known to contribute to the molecular pathologies of many diseases including periodontitis and cystic fibrosis. Furthermore, evidence continues to accumulate suggesting that a substantial percentage of chronic skin wounds contain bacterial biofilms. The extreme resistance of bacteria in biofilms to killing by antibodies, phagocytic inflammatory cells, antibiotics, and antiseptics leads to chronic inflammation, which results in elevated levels of proteases and reactive oxygen species that degrade proteins in the wound bed that are essential to healing. At present, the only methods to detect bacterial biofilms in wounds involve techniques that are technically complex and time consuming, which prevents the rapid assessment of wounds for biofilms. Thus, there is a need for a rapid, simple, inexpensive, point-of-care indicator that would detect and localize bacterial biofilms in chronic wounds. Detection of biofilm in a region of a chronic wound would enable more specific and appropriate debridement and treatment of the wound bed. Results of initial experiments with a prototype thin membrane sheet that was pressed onto the surface of pig skin explants with mature Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms then briefly exposed to a dye followed by washing produced strong staining of regions of the skin with the mature biofilm. In contrast, only faint staining was produced on the membrane when it was pressed on pigskin explants without biofilm. These initial results suggest that it may be possible to generate a “wound biofilm map” that can localize biofilms in regions of a wound bed. Further optimization of the design and performance of the prototype wound biofilm map are underway which will be followed by initial clinical evaluation in patients with chronic wounds.

Objective outcome evaluation of Charcot foot reconstruction by monitoring dynamic behavior of plantar pressure
B Najafi, PhD; R Crews, MS; M Bharara, PhD; J Wrobel, DPM, MS; LC Rogers, DPM; DG Armstrong, DPM, PhD

     Objective. The optimal surgical approach for Charcot foot reconstruction is a hotly debated topic among foot and ankle surgeons. Although many studies have proposed plantar pressure magnitude (PPM) as a surrogate measure of trauma to the plantar foot, the current evaluation methods suffer from various shortcomings. In the other words, following surgery, patients may increase their gait speed in response to greater confidence in stability and a more efficient gait pattern. Although this increase may be practically advantageous, it may also result in increased PPM, historically viewed as a negative outcome. This study aims to develop a novel assessment protocol, which is speed independent and can reliably screen dynamic plantar loading in patients with Charcot reconstruction. Methods. A time-scale normalization scheme was used to moderate the effect of gait speed.