[Comparative study of 2 methods to determine the in vivo bactericidal activity of antiseptics]

In France in 1990, there is no standardized method to study the bactericidal activity in vivo of antiseptics. A comparative study of the Williamson-Kligmann techniques (on the epidermis of the forearm) and of the bag of Gaschen (on the hands) has been carried out by using 11 products and 10 volunteers for each of them. On the forearm, the rates of reduction of the number of bacterias numbered in decimal logarithms are significantly much higher to those measured on the hand. After having stated the advantages and drawbacks of each of these two techniques, an account fort the differences in the activity that have been observed is suggested. None of these two techniques is universal and one or the other has to be used according to the therapeutic prescription (antisepsy of the normal skin or of the hands) of the patent medicine.