No need for preoperative antiseptics in elective outpatient plastic surgical operations: a prospective study.

The development of antisepsis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized health care. The time-honored technique of skin preparation is to scrub the entire operative area of the patient for 5 to 7 minutes with a germicidal detergent solution and then paint the region with an antimicrobial solution of either tincture of povidone-iodine (Betadine) or chlorhexidine. Although antiseptics result in lower colony counts on the skin, they have side effects and higher cost in relation to normal saline. The authors have prepared patients by showering the surgical site with soap and water and rinsing it with normal saline, in 905 cases of outpatient, clean-wound plastic surgery. In another 905 cases that served as the control group, the traditional method of preoperative shower and scrub with chlorhexidine or Betadine was used. In both groups, there was no incidence of wound infection.