Introduction: Surgical site infection is one of the complications that highly affects patients’ quality of life. During abdominal surgery, the skin serves as the body's first and primary defense barrier. However, after a knife incision, the skin's continuity is disrupted, allowing microorganisms to easily reside on tissues and internal organs and reproduce. In this study, a randomized clinical trial was used to compare the results and complications of povidone iodine 10% and chlorhexidine digluconate 1% and ethanol 70% on the skin around an abdominal surgical site.
Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 200 patients who were admitted to Baqiyatallah Hospital from 2016 to 2018 and underwent elective abdominal (clean-contaminated) surgery. This study was conducted in a single-blind format. In the first group, the surgical site was disinfected with povidone-iodine 10% in two stages and gauze soaked in povidone-iodine 10%. In the second group, surgical site disinfection was performed using a chlorhexidine digluconate 1%-ethanol 70% solution, which we used as a spray in one stage with 3 to 6 puffs based on the surgical site size.
Results: This study examined 200 patients who underwent elective abdominal surgery. Ninety-six (49.8%) patients were in group I (povidone-iodine 10%), and 97 (50.2%) patients were in group II (chlorhexidine digluconate 1%-Ethanol 70%). No significant difference was observed between the two methods in terms of the bacteria grown in culture. No significant differences were observed among the duration of pre-surgical hospitalization, the time for the appearance of post-operative infection, and the type of surgery.
Conclusion: The results showed that it is preferable to use chlorhexidine digluconate (1% ethanol) for abdominal surgical sites due to the lower cost and shorter time for preparation.