(March 15, 2010 - Insidermedicine)

Bathing severely injured trauma patients with cloths that are impregnated with chlorhexidine can help reduce infection rates, according to research published in the Archives of Surgery.

Here are some recommendations for preventing the spread of infection within hospitals, from the World Health Organization:

•    Wash hands promptly after contact with infective material

•    Use no touch technique wherever possible

•    Wear gloves when in contact with blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions, mucous membranes and contaminated items

Researchers out of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle conducted a retrospective analysis of infection rates among 539 severely injured patients being treated at a 12-bed intensive care unit (ICU) in a level I trauma center before and after a chlorhexidine bathing protocol was instituted. Before the protocol, 253 of the patients were bathed daily without chlorhexidine. After the protocol was instituted, the remaining 286 patients were bathed daily with cloths impregnated with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate.

Patients who received chlorhexidine baths had 2.1 per 1,000 catheter-related bloodstream infections, compared with 8.4 among those bathed without chlorhexidine. The incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia was not affected by chlorhexidine baths, but those who received the baths experienced only 1.6 cases of MRSA ventilator-related pneumonia per 1,000 ventilator-days, as compared with 5.7 per 1,000 ventilator-days among those who did not receive the baths. The rates of colonization with MRSA as well as Acinetobacter were both significantly lower among those who received chlorhexidine baths.

Today’s research highlights a new bathing protocol that can be used to reduce the risk of infection in high risk trauma patients.