The Importance of Clinically Relevant Research When Making Comparisons

We wish to thank the authors for their efforts in Australia to acquire and evaluate this product "PhaseOne" which is a form of pure hypochlorous acid (HOCl) not available in their country and that has never been marketed there.¹ The authors of this study have previously published quite interesting and significant findings regarding dried biofilms on hard surfaces in the healthcare environment.^2-4 In this particular study, though, standard methods that might be considered directly applicable to disinfection of soiled hard surfaces and equipment⁵ – involving addition of 5% bovine calf serum (BCS) to simulate surface "soiling" – were inappropriately applied to the evaluation of the potential performance of antiseptics in the surgical breast pocket at time of implant placement. Based on actual protein measurements of pocket fluid taken at the time of breast implant surgery (as noted below), the use of the 5% bovine serum in the experiments in this study, and the excessively high relative resultant levels of protein in relation to the amount of antiseptic tested, has produced invalid findings that have no relevance to the actual clinical setting.