A comparison of the effects of two antiseptic agents on Staphylococcus epidermidis colony forming units at the peritoneal dialysis catheter exit site

Peritonitis is the most common complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD). Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epi), a common skin organism, is the microorganism that is identified is the majority of episodes of peritonitis. The PD catheter breaks the natural skin barrier and allows a periluminal migration of bacteria from the skin surface into the sterile peritoneal cavity. Exit site care is routinely performed to decrease the colony counts of microorganisms on the skin surrounding the PD catheter. Research data is limited to support any of the currently used protocols for exit site care. This study compared the effect of two antiseptic agents, povidone-iodine (P-I) and chlorhexidine gluconate (CG), on S. epi colony forming units (cfu) at the PD catheter exit site over a 24 hour period. Because the distribution of the research data was markedly non-normal, a descriptive approach was used to interpret the data. Results showed that there was no difference between P-I and CG immediately after exit site care. All patients had zero growth at Time I. One trend that emerged was that at 24 hours after exit site care with P-I, more patients (54%) had S. epi cfu than did patients (15%) cleaned with CG.