Nasal disinfection in prevention of post-operative staphylococcal infection of wounds

Abstract

A controlled trial to test the effect of nasal disinfection with “naseptin” on the post-operative wound sepsis rate was made in 850 surgical patients. No influence on the rate was observed. Nasal carriers experienced a higher sepsis rate than non-carriers, especially among the controls; in the latter nearly half the patients with sepsis harboured a staphylococcus of the same type in nose and wound. It is suggested that nasal colonization in a surgical ward is a measure of the staphylococcal contamination of the environment and may only be an indirect cause of wound sepsis. © 1961, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.