To the Editor—We read with great interest the articles by Noorani et al in the British Journal of Surgery and by Lee et al in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. The authors have published almost simultaneously two systematic reviews of what is described as comparisons of chlorhexidine versus povidone-iodine for preoperative skin antisepsis. On the basis of their analyses, the authors ...

The effect of preoperative whole-body washing with chlorhexidine detergent on the incidence of postoperative wound infection was assessed in a placebo-controlled trial of 1989 patients. Patients bathed or showered with chlorhexidine, placebo, or conventional bar soap, on two occasions in the 24 h before operation. The overall infection rate for patients treated with chlorhexidine was 9%, agains...

Chlorhexidine is a commonly used antiseptic and disinfectant in the health-care setting. Its usage has increased in recent years with intensive campaigns and infection control guidelines to combat hospital-acquired infections. As a result, patients and health-care workers (HCW) are exposed to increasing chlorhexidine usage. In recent years, adverse reactions to chlorhexidine ranging from allerg...

We undertook a systems engineering approach to evaluate housewide implementation of daily chlorhexidine bathing. We performed direct observations of the bathing process and conducted provider and patient surveys. The main outcome was compliance with bathing using a checklist. Fifty-seven percent of baths had full compliance with the chlorhexidine bathing protocol. Additional time was the main b...

The susceptibility of Streptococcus mutans to chlorhexidine and to six commonly used, systemic antibacterial agents (amoxicillin, cefuroxime, penicillin, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, tetracycline, and erythromycin) was studied for 424 clinical isolates from 116 children and students. The MIC of chlorhexidine for all isolates was < or = 1 micrograms/ml. No resistance to the other antimicrobial...

BACKGROUND Chlorhexidine has been widely used for hand hygiene to prevent transmission of nosocomial pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, data on longitudinal surveillance of the susceptibility of MRSA isolates to chlorhexidine are limited. METHODS A total of 240 nosocomial MRSA isolates obtained in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005 at National Taiwan Univ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of topical chlorhexidine for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in a meta-analysis. DATA SOURCE Computerized PubMed and MEDLINE search supplemented by manual searches for relevant articles. STUDY SELECTION Randomized controlled trials evaluating efficacy of topical chlorhexidine applied to the oropharynx vs. placebo or standard care for prev...

Chlorhexidine is one of the most widely used biocides in health and agricultural settings as well as in the modern food industry. It is a cationic biocide of the biguanide class. Details of its mechanism of action are largely unknown. The frequent use of chlorhexidine has been questioned recently, amidst concerns that an overuse of this compound may select for bacteria displaying an altered sus...

BACKGROUND Chlorhexidine bathing has been associated with reductions in healthcare-associated bloodstream infection. To determine the impact and sustainability of the effect of chlorhexidine bathing on central venous catheter-associated bloodstream infection, we performed a prospective, 3-phase, multiple-hospital study. METHODS In the medical intensive care unit and the respiratory care unit ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the long-term impact of pediatric central line care practices in reducing PICU central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLA-BSI) rates and to evaluate the added impact of chlorhexidine scrub and chlorhexidine-impregnated sponges. METHODS A 3-year, multi-institutional, interrupted time-series design (October 2006 to September 2009), with historical control data, wa...