Implications of biofilms on medical devices and human infections

Biofilm formation is a universal trait of microbes and their implications on wide range of scientific disciplines involving biological wastewater treatment, biogas reactors, water engineering, human infections and evolutionary biology is quite remarkable. Biofilm represent most prevalent type of growth in nature which is crucial in development of clinical infections and emergence of resistance to antimicrobials and thus they pose a serious public health problem. The impact of biofilms on device related infections needs to be studied in detail to design therapeutic guidelines. This book investigates in detail the formation and structure of biofilms, methods used to measure biofilms, risk factors associated with biofilm colonization of medical devices and antimicrobial resistance associated with biofilm- based infections.