Chlorhexidine alcohol versus povidone-iodine: The comparative study of skin disinfectants at the blood transfusion centers of Iran

Objectives: The skin disinfection in the blood donor's arm is a key step to minimize the risk of microbial contamination at blood donation sessions. Current study aimed to compare the efficacy of 2% chlorhexidine gluconate in 70% isopropyl alcohol (CHG/IPA) with povidone-Iodine (PI) at blood transfusion centers (BTCs) of Iran.

Material and methods: Blood donors were selected to evaluate three commercial CHG/IPA disinfectants (N=300), prior the application at BTCs, and to compare the rate of positive skin cultures between CHG/IPA and PI in 31 BTCs (N=8578). The rate of positivity for PI over a 5-year period was also investigated. After application of a two-step disinfection procedure, the biochemical characteristics were checked in accordance with the conventional bacteriological methods. The Z-test analysis was used to compare the deviation between the positive microbial culture ratios.

Result: No donors had a positive culture after disinfection during the evaluation study. There was no difference in the rate of positivity between PI and CHG/IPA after disinfection (P>0.05). The rate of positivity for PI from 2012 to 2017 showed a decreasing trend. The rate of positivity was significantly higher in winter rather than summer (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The disinfection efficacy of CHG/IPA was equivalent to that of PI. The 5-year monitoring of PI at BTCs showed that the improvement in the rate of positive skin cultures possibly due to effectiveness of correcting actions.