Care of the umbilical cord after birth: A limited review of recent literature.

A 1992 meta-analysis did not find enough evidence to recommend one method of umbilical cord care as the 'best'. However, certain agents were deemed acceptable including triple dye, silver sulfadiazine and antibiotic ointments. In this paper, the authors sought to discover whether there was now evidence to support one specific method of cord care over others for the prevention of bacterial infection. After a limited search of the English language literature published in the past 10 years, little evidence was found to suggest that treatments to sterilize or speed up the drying of the umbilical cord were either routinely necessary or efficacious. Results from nine studies are summarized in this paper.