O. Mimoz et al., Chlorhexidine compared with povidone-iodine as skin preparation before blood culture - A randomized, controlled trial, ANN INT MED, 131(11), 1999, pp. 834-837
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Background: Chlorhexidine is better than povidone-iodine for care of cathet
er sites, but it is not known whether chlorhexidine is superior in reducing
blood culture contamination.
Objective: To determine whether alcoholic chlorhexidine is a more effective
skin antiseptic for collection of blood cultures than aqueous povidone-iod
ine,
Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
Setting: Three adult intensive care units in a French university hospital.
Patients: 403 adults who had at least one blood culture drawn through a per
ipheral vein. I
nterventions: Patients were randomly assigned to receive skin preparation w
ith an aqueous solution of 10% povidone-iodine or an alcoholic solution of
0.5% chlorhexidine before phlebotomy.
Measurements: Contamination rates of blood cultures.
Results: Of 2041 blood cultures collected in 403 patients, 124 yielded path
ogens. Chlorhexidine reduced the incidence of blood culture contamination m
ore than povidone-iodine (14 of 1019 cultures [1.4%] compared with 34 of 10
22 cultures [3.3%]; odds ratio, 0.40 [95% Cl, 0.21 to 0.75]; P = 0.004).
Conclusion: Skin preparation with alcoholic chlorhexidine is more efficacio
us than skin preparation with aqueous povidone-iodine in reducing contamina
tion of blood cultures.