ABSTRACT:

Introduction: Antiseptics are substances that stop or slow down the growth of microorganism in or on living tissues. Applications of antiseptics before surgical procedures minimize the risk of developing Surgical Site Infections (SSIs). Povidone Iodine (PI) and PI paints are used in preoperative surgical skin preparation. The use of PI and Methylated Spirit (MS) has a synergistic effect thus bring a significant reduction of SSI, compared to PI alone.

Methodology: A cross sectional study involved patients undergoing major surgery in the main operating theatre at BMC which aimed at determining the level of skin colonization through culture results from skin swabs collected before antiseptic application and the clearance rate of Staphylococcus species on PI and PI paints determined through culture results from skin swabs collected after antiseptic application on patients undergoing major surgery at BMC.

Results: In culture results from skin colonization before antiseptic application three bacteria species were isolated with S.epidermidis most predominant 74/127 (58%) followed by S.saprophyticus 44/127 (35%) and S.aureus 9/127 (7%).The use of PI paints as antiseptics used in surgical skin preparation was effective in clearing normal skin flora by 81/81 (100%). Meanwhile the use of 10% PI alone had a clearance rate of 37/39 (95%) of normal skin flora and 2/39 (5%) showed positive bacterial growth (p=0.04) and the bacteria isolated was S. epidermidis.

Conclusion: The most commonly isolated skin flora was S.epidermidis 74/127 (58%), this is normal since it covers about 90% of the body’s normal flora. The use of 10% PI with 70% MS during surgical procedures has shown to be superior 100% than PI alone 95% thus, more studies must be done on the effectiveness of PI alone.