To Örebro University

Routine products are used and procedures are followed in order to prevent and minimize the bacterial contamination of the surgical wound, and thus reduce the risk of postoperative wound infections. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of different preoperative skin preparation before cardiac surgery.

In study I, 10 healthy volunteers were compared in time to recolonization of the skin and bacterial growth with or without plastic adhesive drape. Bacterial samples were taken as paired samples on both side of the sternum. Plastic drape on disinfected skin seems to hasten recolonization compared with bare skin.

In study II, 135 cardiac surgery patients were comparing plastic adhesive drape versus bare skin on the chest regarding intra-operative bacterial growth. Plastic adhesive drape did not reduce the bacterial recolonization or wound contamination, P. acnes colonizes males more often than females and P. acnes is not affected by disinfection with 0.5% chlorhexidine in ethanol.

Study III, compared the leg harvesting site with or without microbal skin sealant in 135 CABG patients regarding intraoperative bacterial growth and postoperative wound infection. Almost no bacterial growth was found during surgery regardless of the use of microbial skin sealant and bare skin. A high incidence of postoperative wound infections (16.8%) in 2 month follow up was present and SSI was largely caused by S. aureus, i.e. other bacterial species than observed intraoperative.

Study IV, a descriptive study using phenotypic and genotypic methods investigate susceptibility to chlorhexidine among S. epidermidis indicating that S. epidermidis isolates following preoperative skin disinfection are sensitive tochlorhexidine.