Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part A (2022)

Introduction: Adequate pre-operative skin preparation helps in reducing the SSIs and this study is undertaken to compare the efficacy of povidone-iodine alone and in combination with chlorhexidine.

Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of povidone-iodine alone and in combination with an antiseptic agent containing alcoholic chlorhexidine on preoperative skin preparation.

Methodology: This is an observational study in which 100 patients admitted for elective clean surgery in Dr. PSIMS & RF during the period of 2 years from November 2019 – October 2021 studied in two groups where preoperative skin preparation is done using povidone-iodine alone and in combination with alcoholic chlorhexidine.

Results and Conclusion: There are 5 patients in group-1 and 1 in group-2 who has positive culture after skin disinfection. There were 5 cases in group-1 and 1 in group-2 who developed SSIs. This study show that chlorhexidine followed by povidone-iodine is effective when compared with povidone-iodine alone.