Development of an infection‐resistant, bioactive wound dressing surface

Abstract Trauma, whether caused by an accident or in an intentional manner, results in significant morbidity and mortality. The goal of this study was to develop a novel biomaterial surface in vitro and ex vivo that provides both localized infection resistance nd hemostatic properties. Our hypothesis is that a combination of specific surface characteristics can be successfully incorporated into a single biomaterial. Functional groups were created with woven Dacron (Cntrl) material via exposure to ethylenediamine (C‐EDA). The antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro) was then applied to the C‐EDA material using pad/autoclave technique (C‐EDA‐AB) followed by surface immobilization of the coagulation cascade enzyme thrombin (C‐EDA‐AB‐Thrombin). Antimicrobial activity by the C‐EDA‐AB surface persisted for 5 days compared with Cntrl and dipped controls, which lasted <1 h. C‐EDA‐AB‐Thrombin surfaces had 2.6‐ and 105‐fold greater surface thrombin activity compared with nonspecifically bound thrombin and Cipro‐dyed surfaces, respectively. Surface thrombus formation ex vivo was evident after 1 min of exposure, with thrombus organization evident by 2.5 min. In contrast, C‐EDA‐AB and Cntrl segments showed only blood protein adsorption on the fibers. Thus, this study demonstrated that Cipro and thrombin can be simultaneously incorporated onto a biomaterial surface while maintaining their respective biological activities. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2005