ABSTRACT
Particularly Antibiotic Associated Resistance................................................34 2.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................36 References................................................................................................................37
The world of diagnostic microbiology has lived a rather sheltered life. It had been assumed that free floating planktonic microorganisms were the primary causes of infectious diseases (1-12). Little consideration was given to the manner by which these pathogens lived in the host environment. However, with aging of the patient population and increases in chronic diseases, indwelling medical devices (IMD) and inert surfaces have become a significant part of medical practice (4-7,13-19). Subsequently it was realized that the microorganisms were capable of forming attached sessile communities called biofilms on these surfaces, and the key principle of “To attach is to survive” is now readily recognized (1-7,9,20-22).
