Bacteria Living in Biofilms in Fluids: Could Chemical Antibiofilm Pretreatment of Culture Represent a Paradigm Shift in Diagnostics?

Biofilms are multicellular aggregates of bacteria immersed in an extracellular matrix that forms on various surfaces, including biological tissues and artificial surfaces. However, more and more reports point out the fact that even biological fluids and semifluid, such as synovial liquid, blood, urine, or mucus and feces, harbor "non-attached" biofilm aggregates of bacteria, which represent a significant phenomenon with critical clinical implications that remain to be fully investigated. In particular, biofilm aggregates in biological fluid samples have been shown to play a relevant role in bacterial count and in the overall accuracy of microbiological diagnosis. In line with these observations, the introduction in the clinical setting of fluid sample pretreatment with an antibiofilm chemical compound called dithiothreitol (DTT), which is able to dislodge microorganisms from their intercellular matrix without killing them, would effectively improve the microbiological yield and increase the sensitivity of cultural examination, compared to the current microbiological techniques. While other ongoing research continues to unveil the complexity of biofilm formation in biological fluids and its impact on infection pathogenesis and diagnosis, we here hypothesize that the routine use of a chemical antibiofilm pretreatment of fluid and semi-solid samples may lead to a paradigm shift in the microbiological approach to the diagnosis of biofilm-related infections and should be further investigated and eventually implemented in the clinical setting.

Pisiform Bone Dislocation in a Pediatric Patient: What is the Best Treatment? Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Traumatic dislocation of the pisiform bone (PB) is a rare injury of the carpal bones, especially in pediatric patients. A few cases were reported, and there is no consensus about the treatment. Each author supports his own method, such as an open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) approach or a closed reduction. However, failures of both techniques with recurrent dislocation of the PB have been reported in the literature. In this article, a fracture dislocation of the PB was treated with ORIF in an 11-year-old boy with a greenstick radial fracture. In addition, a review of the literature about pisiform fracture dislocation in children has been made.