does antibacterial adhesive incision drape prevent intraoperative contamination in veterinary surgeries?

Wound infection rates of 2.5-4.8% have been reported for clean procedures in dogs but the rate is higher for clean-contaminated, contaminated, and dirty procedures, the reason for preoperative skin preparation is to reduce the number of skin bacteria to a level that minimizes the risk of infection. the efficiency of antimicrobial drapes has been studied in several studies which performed on both humans and animals. medical application of antimicrobial drapes is indicated in different surgeries, including primary knee arthroplasty, spine surgeries, etc. some veterinary reports have been examined the usage of antimicrobial drapes for clean canine surgical wounds and stifle surgeries. these reports compare antimicrobial adhesive drape and povidone-iodine preoperative skin preparation in dogs. despite using antimicrobial drapes for primary knee arthroplasty in humans being efficient, adhesive incise drapes did not reduce wound contamination of clean canine surgical wounds. no difference was observed between single layer kraton and double layer drapes and the application of this antimicrobial adhesive drape after a 1-minute alcohol scrub. so incise drapes is not as effective in the reduction of dog’s skin bacteria as povidone-iodine preparation of the canine skin is. unlike human preoperative procedures using povidone-iodine preparation and normal draping is more efficient in veterinary surgery than antimicrobial drapes.