Comparing standard wound bacteria detection method with MolecuLight
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Detecting clinically relevant wound bacteria in burns wounds using MolecuLight i:X imaging device compared with standard wound swabbing techniques
IRAS ID
244633
Contact name
Declan Collins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foudation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Microbial infection on burn wounds is a major clinical challenge to clinicians and patients worldwide. There are evidence that following oncologic surgery of the head and neck the
average hospitalization time increased from 14 days, when wounds healed without any complications, to 24 days, when the wounds became infected, ultimately increased costs of treatment (Johnson, Yu 1991).
Accurate evaluation of microbial infections on burn wounds is very difficult with the naked eye.
Currently, the "gold standard" method of detecting burn wounds infection relies on subjective, qualitative assessment with the naked eye of clinical signs and symptoms (CSS) under standard white light, such as pain, swelling, foul odour and heat, obtaining swabs using Levine swabbing techniques (involving sampling the fluid in the tissue followed by rotating and pressing down on the swab when obtaining the culture to express wound fluid from viable tissue then rolling the tip of the swab on its side over the area for one full rotation.)
However, in some patients, symptoms are not visible so the bacterial load cannot always be detected. The Levine swabbing technique is also limited because it only samples the centre of the wound, potentially missing collection and identification of treatment-relevant bacteria at the wound periphery or other distant location. Real-time and immediate detection of bacteria colonies can be achieved using a device called MolecuLight i:X via light technology. Previous studies have confirmed the efficacy of Moleculight i:X to assess burn wounds and highlight bacteria to guide swabbings, but not compared its effectiveness against standard of care. The aim of this study is to determine whether MolecuLight i:X offers higher accuracy in burn wounds bacterial colonies detection as compared to the current gold standard (CSS). MolecuLight i:X can then be incorporate into routine wound assessment.REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1115
Date of REC Opinion
21 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion