Extended life expectancy and medical development has led to an increased reliance on
biomaterial implants and devices to support or restore human anatomy and function. However, the presence of an implanted
biomaterial results in an increased susceptibility to
infection. Due to the severity of the potential outcomes of
biomaterial-associated
infection, different strategies have been employed to reduce the
infection risk. Interestingly, degradable biological materials demonstrate increased resistance to
bacterial infection compared to non-degradable synthetic
biomaterials. Current knowledge about the specific mechanisms of how degradable biological materials are afforded increased resistance to
infection is limited. Therefore, in this paper a number of hypotheses to explain the decreased
infection risk associated with the use of degradable versus non-degradable
biomaterials are evaluated and discussed with reference to the present state of knowledge.