British scientists are designing a ground-breaking catheter that uses a laser to “lock out” and destroy bacteria responsible for one of the most common forms of hospital infections.
A team of researchers from University College London has devised a means of using light-sensitive agents embedded in the plastic tubing of the catheter to block bacteria from travelling into a patient’s urinary tract. Use of catheters, which are inserted into the patient to drain or administer fluid, is thought to cause more than 20 per cent of all hospital-acquired infections.
The device works by having a chemical compound, called methylene blue, on the plastic surface of the catheter where it exits the patient. A laser runs through optic fibres down the catheter, and when light pulses