• The Ottawa Hospital has chosen to use photodisinfection technology developed by Canadian life sciences company, Ondine Biomedical.
• Nasal decolonization has been recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce surgical site infections in spine surgeries; photodisinfection is an effective and low-cost therapy that improves patient outcomes reducing readmission rates and costs by rapidly eliminating the pathogens they are carrying.

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) has selected Canadian company Ondine Biomedical’s nasal photodisinfection technology for a three-month pilot evaluation of a universal, non-antibiotic protocol to prevent surgical site infections in spine surgery patients. In an era of rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR), reducing infection rates with non-antibiotic technologies that do not generate AMR is an important Canadian objective.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that surgical site infections (SSIs) are the leading cause of readmissionsⁱ to hospital following surgery and a significant cause of post-surgical morbidity and mortality, with a 2- to 11-fold increase in the risk of mortality.ⁱⁱ Post-surgical infections are a greater risk for spinal surgeries, affecting up to 17% of patients and treatment can be challenging, especially with rising rates of antimicrobial resistance.[i][ii]  

Ondine’s Steriwave™ technology for pre-surgical nasal decolonization has already been deployed in a number of Canadian hospitals, including Vancouver General and UBC Hospitals, where it has reduced post-operative infection rates for spine surgeries by 78%.

During the pilot, spine surgery patients at TOH will be using Ondine’s nasal photodisinfection therapy to decolonize the nose of pathogens – viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The hospital will then evaluate a how effectively nasal photodisinfection reduces the number of SSIs, patients’ length of stay in hospital, and readmissions rates.

Carolyn Cross, Ondine’s CEO commented: “We are very pleased to be working with the spine group at TOH to make our technology available to their patients. Following COVID-19, it is more important than ever to reduce patient readmission rates given the large surgery backlogs at all Canadian hospitals. Nasal decolonization has long been recommended by the World Health Organization for complex surgeries. Steriwave nasal photodisinfection enables fast, broad-spectrum efficacy, resulting in significant improvements to patient outcomes, cost savings, and bed capacity.”

ⁱ Merkow RP, Ju MH, Chung JW, Hall BL, Cohen ME, Williams MV, Tsai TC, Ko CY, Bilimoria KY. Underlying reasons associated with hospital readmission following surgery in the United States. JAMA. 2015 Feb 3;313(5):483-95. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.18614. PMID:

ⁱⁱ Ban KA, Minei JP, Laronga C, Harbrecht BG, Jensen EH, Fry DE, Itani KM, Dellinger EP, Ko CY, Duane TM. American College of Surgeons and Surgical Infection Society: Surgical Site Infection Guidelines, 2016 Update. J Am Coll Surg. 2017 Jan;224(1):59-74. d

ⁱⁱⁱ Yao R, Zhou H, Choma TJ, Kwon BK, Street J. Surgical Site Infection in Spine Surgery: Who Is at Risk? Global Spine J. 2018 Dec;8(4 Suppl):5S-30S. doi: 10.1177/2192568218799056. Epub 2018 Dec 13. PMID: 30574441; PMCID: PMC6295819.