EFFICACY OF TOPICAL POVIDONE-IODINE DURING THE FIRST WEEK AFTER OPHTHALMIC SURGERY

PURPOSE:. In the first postoperative day, povidone iodine ophthalmic s olution prevents an increase in conjunctival bacterial colony forming units and decreases the species compared with antibiotic, We sought to determine whether these beneficial effects of povidone iodine could b e sustained during the first postoperative week. METHODS: In 42 eyes o f 35 consecutive patients, one or two drops of either a broad-spectrum antibiotic (polymyxin B sulfate-neomycin sulfate-gramicidin) or povid one iodine 1.25% to 2.5% were placed in the treated eye or eyes at the conclusion of surgery and three times daily during the first postoper ative week, Bacterial cultures were taken from both eyes at the end of surgery before instillation of either of the eyedrops and again 1 wee k later, Twenty eight untreated eyes served as a control group. RESULT S: During the first postoperative week, the number of colony forming u nits and species increased in both treatment groups, Relative to the c ontrol group, both medications effectively reduced the mean number of colony forming units at 1 week (P<.02), but: their effects on colony-f orming units did not significantly differ from each other (80 +/- 290 for the povidone-iodine-treated eyes and 75 +/- 90 for the antibiotic- treated eyes), At 1 week, the species count increased 281% in the anti biotic group but only 106% in the povidone-iodine group, Compared to t he control group, eyes that received povidone-iodine had a significant ly lower species count (P=.0097). CONCLUSION: Povidone-iodine ophthalm ic solution is an alternative to postoperative topical antibiotics bec ause of its effectiveness in controlling conjunctival bacterial-colony forming units and species, its relatively low cost, and its availabil ity.