Evaluation of the efficacy of surgical hand disinfection following a reduced application time of 3 instead of 5 min.

The guidelines of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology for the evaluation of disinfectants suggest an application time of 5 min for surgical scrub products. In a comparative investigation, which included the more important basic substances and agents, tests were carried out to investigate whether it was possible to reduce the application time to 3 min without losing efficiency in both the immediate as well as the prolonged effect of bacterial reduction. It was found that this could be achieved by certain products, depending on the formula and type of active substance. Thus, a reduced application time of 3 min can be considered for the evaluation of surgical scrub disinfectants for national and international guidelines.