Perspective - Towards self-sterilizing medical devices: controlling infection

Medical devices are an important component of modern medicine. In many cases, medical devices are used to improve the 'quality of life' for the patient, and their use is increasing dramatically. At the same time, the emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria, or 'super-bugs', is a global crisis. At least in part, biomedical devices proliferate the growth of resistant bacteria. This has spurred new research aimed at the development of medical devices that prevent or control bacterial colonization, and this perspective discusses the current efforts in this area. (c) 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.