Effects of the previous bath, trichotomy and antisepsis in reducing contamination of the surgical site in bitches undergoing elective OSH

ABSTRACT:

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of bath 24 hours before surgery and preoperative shaving in reducing microbial count of the operating field skin and antiseptic efficiency of 0.5% chlorhexidine gluconate and 10% iodine polyvinylpyrrolidone for antisepsis of the surgical site, by checking its action 4 minutes and 2 hours after application. We used 20 healthy bitches, randomly allocated into 2 groups of 10 animals: Group I underwent bath 24 hours before surgery, whereas Group II did not undergo this procedure. Many bacterial genera have been isolated before and after use of antiseptics. Statistical significance was observed between the groups regarding the effect of bath prior to surgery, just two hours after application of chlorhexidine. Shaving reduced 26.48% of the microbial load in Group I and increased the microbial load in 41.19% in Group II, showing statistical difference. After the use of antiseptics, there was no statistical difference between the groups at any time. Similarly, comparison of the efficiency of the bath with or without antiseptic showed no statistical significance. The iodine polyvinylpyrrolidone caused allergic reaction in 15% of animals and was not observed skin irritation caused by chlorhexidine. We conclude that the prior bath is effective in reducing bacterial load just after 2 hours of antisepsis with chlorhexidine; shaving is more effective in reducing microbial when the animal is subjected to the bath and the two antiseptic agents are equally effective in surgical antisepsis or for up to 2 hours the animal did not take a bath or prior to surgery.

INDEX TERMS:
Previous bath; trichotomy; antisepsis; contamination of the surgical site; ovariosalpingohisterectomy; elective OSH; antiseptic; operative field; chlorhexidine; PVP-I; bitches; surgery