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Journal de Pharmacie Clinique

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Comparison of in vivo antibacterial activity of two skin disinfection procedures for insertion of peripheral catheters : povidone iodine versus chlorhexidine Volume 19, issue 2, Juin 2000

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Skin disinfection is a key point for the prevention of nosocomial infections especially when performing invasive procedures such as insertion of peripheral catheters. The use of alcohol-based antiseptics leads to improve the bactericidal activity and to decrease the duration of skin disinfection in emergency situation. We performed a randomized study on two groups of 22 volunteers to compare the in vivo bactericidal effect of two fast disinfection protocols : povidone iodine (PVP-I) in scrub formulation followed by alcoholic PVP-I versus chlorhexidine in scrub formulation followed by alcoholic chlorhexidine. Bacteria were recovered using the cylinder scrub method and the reduction of the aerobic and anaerobic flora between T 0 and each of the three sampling time (T 30 sec, T 3 min, T 2 h) were compared for the two protocols. The reduction of flora at the three sampling time were not statistically different between the two protocols. Reduction after 30 seconds was around 1,5 log10 for the aerobic flora and 1,1 log10 for the anaerobic flora. After 3 minutes, the reduction was around 2,1 log10 for the aerobic flora and 1,8 log10 for the anaerobic flora. After 2 hours, the reduction was still around 2 log10 for the aerobic flora and 1,3 log10 for the anaerobic flora. Skin tolerance of the products was perfect in the two groups. The two protocols used in this study led to a similar and fast in vivo bactericidal activity.