Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background and Aim: Skin disinfection is an effective method of preventing surgical site infection (SSI), but there is controversy about the duration of skin preparation. Therefore this study was conducted to determine the effect of duration of skin preparation on skin microbial flora in orthopedic patients admitted to Hamadan Mobasher hospital.

  Material and method: This randomized clinical trial study was performed on 46 patients that underwent orthopedic surgery. For data collection, a checklist was used and microbial culture results also were considered. Four skin cultures were obtained, the first sample was collected before skin preparation and the others were collected 2, 5and 10 minute after beginning of skin preparation, respectively, from surgical site. Samples were examined for total colony forming units (CFU) and kind of aerobic bacterial flora.

  Results: The findings showed a statistically significant relationship between mean skin bacterial CFU and duration of skin preparation (P<0.01), except for comparison between the fifth and tenth minute skin preparation (P= 0.057). Exact binomial test showed there was statistically significant decrease in the kind of skin bacterial flora with increasing in duration of skin preparation (P<0.05), but there was no growth for diphtheroid in the fifth minute and for other bacteria, in the tenth minute.

  Conclusion: According to the findings, it is enough to disinfect surgical site with %7.5 povidon iodine for 5 minutes to diminish skin bacterial count in surgical patient.