Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy in the Nasal Decolonization of Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients: A Pilot Randomized Trial

Infections are the leading cause of morbidity and the second leading cause of mortality among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) on renal replacement therapy. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a major agent and previous nasal colonization represents an independent risk factor for infection. Up to 50% of these patients can be known to be colonized. With the global increase in bacterial resistance by S.aureus strategies for infection prevention and transmission by this agent are needed. The strategy of decolonization and elimination of nasal carrier status by S.aureus in dialytic chronic renal patients reduces infection rates, especially bacteremia. The gold standard for nasal decolonization is topical mupirocin treatment, but there are reports of increasing resistance especially after prolonged use, which limits the establishment of clinical protocols for the prevention of infection in the dialysis population. Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy (aPDT) proves to be a promising approach for its potential bactericidal effect, including multidrug-resistant bacteria and its low tendency to induce drug resistance.

This is a 3-months follow-up, randomized, single-blind, prospective controlled trial, single-center and will happen in 02 phases: Phase 1 - Epidemiological Evaluation - A researcher will invite the research participants who are undergoing treatment at the Hemodialysis Service of Clinical Hospital and explain its contents. After reading and signing the informed consent, this same researcher (calibrated for the experiment) will perform nasal secretion microbiological collections to identify patients colonized by S.aureus in the anterior nostril (nasal carrier) - baseline T0 and the application of the questionnaire that identifies possible factors that may be considered as risk for colonization and possible development of diseases related to S. aureus. In the laboratory of Microbiology, the strains will be identified and the colonized patients will be invited to continue the study (Phase 2). Non-carrier patients will only be counseled with infection prevention care. Phase 2 - Parallel clinical trial with two intervention groups (aPDT or Mupirocin) - Patients with nasal aureus (thirty-four colonized patients aged over 18 years) will be treated with aPDT (experimental group) or mupirocin (control group). Two other trained researchers will collect new aliquots of nasal discharge after completion of nostril treatment (T1) to check for decolonization by culture. A new collection will be performed at 1 (T2) and 3 (T3) months after treatment to assess recolonization.It was evaluated intervention safety (photodynamic therapy) through a directed and open questionnaire about adverse effects,immediately after treatments, with a 3-month follow-up.