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Determination of the microbiologic flora on the inclusion site among obstetric patients who underwent surgical skin preparation with either 10% povidone iodine or 4% chlorhexidine antiseptic solution prior to cesarean section in a tertiary hospital
Diana J. Cupino, RN, MD and Stella Marie L. Jose, MD, FPOGS
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Philippine General Hospital, University of the Philippines - Manila
Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of ninety-two (92) obstetric patients who were admitted for cesarean section. They underwent fishbowl lottery, wherein participants drew from a bag of folded stubs written chlorhexidine or povidone iodine, to determine their distribution to either group. Forty six (46) participants were distributed in each group. Skin cultures were obtained by the researchers from the incision site after surgical skin preparation using chlorhexidine or povidone iodine.
Results: Total of 92 participants enrolled in this study, 46 participants in chlorhexidine group and another 46 participants in povidone iodine group. There was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of clinicodemographic characteristics. Out of the 92 participants, only one participant, under the povidone iodine group, showed a growth of 100,000 colony-forming units of Enterobacter cloacae and has no statistical significance in the growth of microbiologic flora after effective surgical skin preparation with either chlorhexidine or povidone iodine.
Conclusions: This study showed that chlorhexidine and povidone iodine are both effective in eliminating microbiologic flora after surgical skin preparation prior to cesarean section. Povidone iodine is still a sound choice of antiseptic especially in low resource setting. Due to the descriptive nature of this paper, only assumptions that chlorhexidine and povidone iodine are comparable antiseptic solutions can be deduced from this study.
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