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It has been estimated that two thirds of all patients admitted to hospital will have an intracorporal device inserted during their stay. The main problems associated with these devices involve localised infections at the insertion site as well as systemic infections. Treatment catheter associated bacteriaemia costs approximately USD 28.000 and includes an additional week to spent on the intensive care unit of a hospital. It is been estimated that hospitals expend more than EUR 50 million additionally per year, with more than 5.000 fatalities annually, in the EU alone. Both from a medical and economic point of view a significant decrease in the number of catheter associated infections is a vital objective. The planned activities aim therefore to the development of a biomimetic surface treatment of peritoneal dialysis catheters connected with the design and the establishment of optimised coating procedures suitable for industrial processing. The technique of peritoneal dialysis (PD) as first described in 1976, is the preferred method compared with the hemodialysis system. Despite the benefits the efficacy is still hampered by severe problems particularly infection of the percutaneous exit-site of the catheters and peritonitis. Therefore it can be concluded, that the infection problem is the key dilemma in PD. Prevention of infections will reduce the number of peritonitis episodes and improve the quality of life of patients. A new surface coating technique will be developed giving special focus to the minimisation of infections. So the establishment of an optimal function of the catheter surface by making highly specific biomimetic modifications in order to avoid bacterial adhesion can offer a real chance to solve a problem with European dimensions. These improvements based on comprehensive research activities directed to new catheter specific coating technologies can be applied in a second step to other medical devices. Other European industrial sectors like biomedical technology, sensor technology including biosensors and also micro-system technology will profit from the new developed anti-infective surface modification technology.
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