Clorhexidine Versus Povidone for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection After Cesarean Section

Clorhexidine Versus Povidone for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection in Patients After Cesarean Section. Randomized, Controlled Trial.

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01741649

Enrollment

800

Registered

2012-12-05

Start date

2012-10-31

Completion date

2013-04-30

Last updated

2013-05-17

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Surgical Wound Infection

Keywords

Surgical wound infection, Clorhexidine, Povidone

Brief summary

Many solutions are used for cleaning the skin of a patient previous to a surgery. Although the efficacy of clorhexidine has been proved in other surgical procedures, there is only a retrospective study in cesarean section (they report no benefit of one solution over the other). The investigators would like to evaluate the difference in surgical site infection in patients after cesarean section comparing preparation of the skin with clorhexidine versus povidone.

Interventions

PROCEDUREClorhexidine

Cleaning of the surgical site previous to the incision with a clorhexidine solution for five minutes.

PROCEDUREPovidone

Cleaning of the surgical site previous to the incision with a povidone solution for five minutes.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

FEMALE

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Gestational age \> 32 weeks * Emergency cesarean section

Exclusion criteria

* Allergy to clorhexidine * Allergy to povidone * Evidence of infection in the surgical site * Loss to follow up at 15 days * Surgeries that due to the emergency of the case do not allow the five minutes of skin cleaning.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Surgical Site infection (SSI)	3 days	The patients will be evaluated for evidence of surgical site infection before leaving the hospital, three (3) days after surgery. The presence of fever, suppurative secretion through the wound or cutaneous changes compatible witn infection will be considered a surgical site infection (SSI). This outcome will be evaluated with a qualitative variable (presence of SSI). The patients will be classified in accordance as With SSI or Without SSI.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Hospitalization	15 days	The patients will be evaluated for evidence of surgical site infection 15 days post surgery. The need to admit the patient to the hospital for management of a surgical site infection will be classified with Hospitalization - Yes/No.

Countries

Panama

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026