CAN THE DGHM TEST FOR THE SURGICAL HAND D ISINFECTION BE USED TO DETECT RESIDUAL EFFECTS

It is investigated if the log reductions measured by the DGHM test for examination and evaluation of disinfecting procedures for the surgica l hand wash, i.e. the short and long term values RFreference,Oh, RFref erence,3b, RFpreparation,Oh and RFpreparation,3h can be used to detect residual effects (a remanent action) of the tested preparation. To do this the differences Delta RF = RF0h-RF3h Of reference and tested pre paration have been formed which are a measure for the bacterial regene ration rate. A remanence index RI = \Delta RFreference\/\Delta RFprepa ration\ has been specified, which, in case RI > 1 indicates a residual effect of the test preparation in relation to the reference. The eval uation of 21 testing protocols is showing that the calculated remanenc e indexes are far away from any significance. This is attributed on th e one hand to the great standard deviations of the log reductions and on the other hand to virtually only small residual effects of the test ed preparations.