Comparison of the Efficacy of Chlorhexidine Gluconate versus Povidone Iodine as Preoperative Skin Preparation for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections

Abstract

Background: Infections that occur in the wound created by an invasive surgical procedure are generally referred as surgical site infections (SSIs). The microorganisms that cause SSIs are usually derived from the patient (endogenous infection), being present on their skin or from an opened viscous. Preoperative skin preparation of the surgical site using appropriate antiseptic products is one of the important interventions to prevent SSIs. SSIs can double the length of time a patient stays in hospital and thereby increase the costs of health care. The aim of this study To compare efficacy of Povidone Iodine and Chlorhexidine Gluconate with help of sterile saline swab culture of SSIs. Methodology: Patients were randomly divided in Group I & Group II each group having equal number of patients undergoing elective clean & clean-contaminated surgeries. The pre operative skin preparation is done with povidone iodine IP 5% w/v in group-I & chlorhexidine gluconate 5% v/v in aqueous base in group II. In both the groups sterile saline swab culture were taken from the incision site pre-painting as well as post-painting. Results: A total of two hundred surgical cases included in study and age ranges from 14 to 80 years and male:female ratio was 1.24 :1 and bacterial growth in prepainting period in povidone iodine group was 81.70% while in chlorhexidine group is 99.15% which is statistically insignificant and in postpainting period in povidone iodine group 4.8% while in chlorhexidine group is 1.6% which is statistically significant. Conclusion: Hence it can be safely concluded that chlorhexidine aquaous was associated with reduced risk of postoperative SSI in clean and clean-contaminated surgery when compared to Povidone Iodine. Further studies should evaluate the effectiveness of CHG versus PI in reducing SSI across contaminated surgery.