A RELATIVE TOXICITY INDEX FOR WOUND CLEANSERS

Sixteen commercial wound and/or skin cleansers were evaluated for thei r toxicity towards polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). PMN were attach ed to glass cover slips and exposed to the test solutions or physiolog ic solution for thirty minutes. Following exposure, the PMN were evalu ated for viability with the trypan exclusion test and functionality by quantitating their phagocytic efficacy. PMN were exposed to serial, t en-fold dilutions of each cleanser until the resulting cellular viabil ity and functionality were similar to cells run simultaneously but exp osed to physiologic solution. A relative index of toxicity was derived from the dilution required to eliminate toxicity. The toxicity index for the sixteen cleansers ranged from 10 to 100,000, indicating one te n-fold dilution to five, ten-fold dilutions. This index may provide us eful information for making a decision of which cleanser to utilize in wound care.