Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common nosocomial infections in surgical patients causing significant increases in morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. As they are usually caused by components of the normal skin flora, disinfection of the surgical site with an antiseptic skin preparation is standard practice prior to any surgical intervention. The most commonly used disinfectants are either chlorhexidine in alcoholic solution (CHX) or PVP iodine in alcoholic solution (PI) This prospective cluster-randomized multicenter cross-over trial is to prove non-inferiority of PI compared to CHX in preoperative skin antisepsis in abdominal and cardiothoracic surgery in regard of SSIs.
Prospective cluster-randomized multicenter cross-over trial to prove non-inferiority of PI compared to CHX in preoperative skin antisepsis