CLEVELAND — Cleveland Foot & Ankle Clinic is one of fifteen centers in the U.S. that is taking part in a clinical trial to prove that an FDA-approved camera does what it says it does.
Diabetics and people with nerve damage are often prone to wounds that won’t heal. Many times the wound may look healthy, but dangerous and infectious bacteria is lurking inside that can’t be seen.
The MolecuLight is a hand held camera that uses a violet light and can “see” bacteria in wounds.
The results are instant.
If the color red or cyan (greenish-blue) appear, it alerts the doctor that bacteria is present and can help them decide the treatment course to take.
“So a lot of times we're treating patients with antibiotics and we don't know how long we should treat them. Do we treat them for 7 days, 10 days, 14 days before we get this bacteria to clear? We can take sequential pictures to see if the antibiotics we have patients on are working. We can see if there’s a need for antibiotic therapy in a patient,” says research director Dr. Windy Visingard Cole.
The MolecuLight manufacturer is sponsoring the clinical trial and they’re looking for another 26 patients to take part. Insurance is not required and those who enter the trial will receive a $100 stipend. The research is also part of the Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine.
“If they don’t necessarily qualify for this trial or this trial doesn’t fit into their schedule, we have five other clinical trials that we’re doing here. So if they have a wound that’s not healing, if they’re not happy with the wound care they’re getting now, if for some reason their insurance changed or they don’t have any insurance or they have a high deductible so that’s limiting the kind of care they can get, we can see them here, no insurance is needed and they get reimbursed for their time,” says Dr. Cole.
Click here for more information about the MolecuLight clinical trial at Cleveland Foot & Ankle Clinic.