Sammanfattning
There has been a significant increase in the use of implants. It has, however, also led to problems with infections. Following primary arthroplasty, approximately 1-2% patients encounter an infection, but in revision arthroplasty the number is as high as 20%. Implant infections are normally caused by bacteria in biofilms: complex and well organized bacterial communities formed on surfaces with bacteria highly resilient to antibiotics and host defense. Therefore biofilm infections may be difficult to treat. Biofilm formation may be regulated by bacterial communication. After the discovery that bacteria may communicate, and that biofilm is one of the features controlled by bacterial communication, a great focus has been to find communication inhibitors. Targeting bacterial communication could be a successful approach in preventing bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation.