Everyone knows skin prepping is one of the most important first steps to reducing surgical site infection risks, but confusion persists surrounding which prepping agent to choose and how to apply it. Recent clinical findings have attempted to provide direction, including an attention-grabbing study published in the January 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that found that patients who were prepped with chlorhexidine-alcohol had nearly half as many surgical site infections (9.5%) as those prepped with povidone-iodine (16.1%). If you're trying to stay current and make sense of the latest developments in surgical skin prepping, here are 5 tips to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape.
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