Pseudomonas aeruginosa peritonitis associated with contaminated poloxamer-iodine solution.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa was responsible for four cases of peritonitis and one of wound infection at the catheter site in outpatients on chronic peritoneal dialysis. All organisms had the same antimicrobial susceptibilities and serotype. Culture surveys showed that a strain of Ps. aeruginosa of identical susceptibility pattern, plasmid profile, and serotype was present in bottles of a poloxamer-iodine solution unopened until the time of culture. Both poloxamer-iodine and povidone-iodine solutions have now been shown to be vulnerable to bacterial contamination. Guidelines for their production and use must be reassessed to take this possibility into account.