Aditi Sharma, Bineypreet Kaur, Aditi Goyal, Purvi, Anu Priya Minhas
Medical implants are instrumental for modern diagnosis, treatment, and management of disease. However, their increased usage has also raised concerns about implant associated infections. These infections are predominantly caused by microbial biofilms, conferring enhanced resistance to antimicrobial therapies, host immune responses, and environmental stresses, making infections difficult to eradicate. This review provided an updated overview of the evolving antibiofilm landscape for medical implants. It discusses major biofilm forming pathogens and mechanisms of biofilm development, followed by conventional and emerging approaches for biofilm prevention and eradication, including antifouling and antimicrobial coatings, quorum sensing inhibitors, hybrid or multifunctional or combination coatings, antimicrobial peptides, nanotechnology enabled platforms, photodynamic and photothermal therapies, immune targeting strategies, and smart coatings. The review further underscores the challenges associated with these antibiofilm strategies hindering clinical translation. Combating these challenges will play a crucial role in the future, improving antibiofilm therapies and patient outcomes in biofilm related medical implant infections.