Reduced bacteria on transplantable allograft skin after preparation with chlorhexidine gluconate, povidone-iodine, and isopropanol.

A comparison was made of the residual microbiologic contamination on transplantable allograft skin for burn wound coverage taken from cadaver donors prepared by two different protocols. One group was prepared with povidone-iodine, detergent, and 70% isopropanol; the other was prepared with these agents and 4% chlorhexidine gluconate (CG). The skin from each of the donor bodies was removed from independently prepared body areas. Without CG, 13.7% of donor body areas were contaminated; with CG, only 5.6% were contaminated. The number of gram-positive bacterial species isolated from skin after CG preparation was dramatically reduced. The gram-positive bacterial contamination rate dropped from 12.1% to 2.2% of donor body areas, a drop of 82%. With CG, 12 of the 15 contaminant species were eliminated; and we saw a general reduction in the total number of contaminated body areas, a specific and pronounced reduction in gram-positive bacteria, and an increase from 86.3% to 94.4% in the amount of skin obtained from donor cadavers that tested negative for bacterial contamination.