comparing the effects of chlorhexidine 2% and iodopovidone-alcohol on peripheral venous catheter bacterial colonization in preterm neonates

Background: studies regarding cleansing the area with antiseptic solutions prior to catheterization in premature infants are limited. therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate and compare the effects of chlorhexidine 2% and iodopovidone-alcohol solutions on bacterial colonization associated with the peripheral venous catheterization in premature infants. methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2016-2017 at a neonatal intensive care unit in qazvin, iran. premature infants (n=106) were assigned to the two groups of “a” treated with chlorhexidine 2% or “b” cleaned with iodopovidone-alcohol 10%. quantitative culture of the catheters was performed 48 hours after insertion. results: our findings showed that the frequency of positive catheter tips culture was 6.6% among all the samples (n=7). out of the seven positive cultures, five (43.9%) belonged to the iodopovidone-alcohol group and two (3.7%) were from the chlorhexidine 2% group. although a number of the positive cultures in the iodopovidone-alcohol group was higher than the chlorhexidine 2% group, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.21). conclusion: results of this study demonstrated that bacterial colony growth may be decreased when using preparatory chlorhexidine 2%, compared with iodopovidone-alcohol at no added risk to infants. we recommend further study in this regard.