An experimental evaluation of antiseptic wound irrigation.

An experimental wound infection model was used to assess the value of four proprietary antiseptics applied topically in preventing the development of wound sepsis. Irrigation of wounds with either saline or noxytiolin 15 min after contamination with Staphylococcus aureus did not reduce either the incidence or degree of infection. Benzalkonium chloride and, to a lesser degree, povidone-iodine significantly reduced the infection rate, but were inferior to chlorhexidine gluconate which eliminated all overt signs of infection. The rate of healing of the chlorhexidine-treated, contaminated wounds was found to be no different from control non-infected wounds. When irrigation was carried out 45 min before wounds were contaminated, chlorhexidine was the only treatment which reduced the rate of infection (P less than 0.001). It is concluded that the superior activity of chlorhexidine in this model is a good indication that it should be a highly effective agent in the prevention of staphylococcal wound infection, and that this is probably due to a combination of bactericidal and persistent action together with low toxicity.