Page 13
C D C
G U I D E L I N E S
CDC Expected to Advocate
Alcohol-Based Skin Preps
How to get your surgeons to
comply with the revised guidelines.
Jim Burger | Associate Editor
*****************
NEW GUIDANCE? Experts think the CDC now has enough clinical evidence to strongly recommend alcohol-based skin preps.
**************
No one knows exactly when the Centers for Disease Control's much-anticipated revised Guidelines for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection will be published. Chances are the revision — the first since 2009 — won't see the light of day until this summer. But the experts we talked to believe that one of the key components is going to be a strong recommendation to use alcohol-based skin preps before surgery.
Don't expect the CDC to recommend which antiseptic combination is preferable — alcohol combined with povidone-iodine or with chlorhexidine, says Linda Greene, RN, MPS, CIC, manager of infection prevention at Highland
