The effectiveness of ethanol gauze for hand disinfection in surgical wards

The effectiveness of ethanol gauze in removing transient bacteria on the hands was investigated in a surgical ward during clinical nursing rounds. Two nurses with similar duties were selected as subjects for each round; one disinfected her hands with ethanol gauze when moving between patients while the other immersed her hands in 0.05% aqueous chlorhexidine gluconate when aware of contaminating her hands. Hand samples were taken after preliminary disinfection before the round, and again after the round on 37 occasions. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were not detected in nurses using ethanol gauze, except in one nurse where S. aureus was isolated from both the pre- and postround hand culture. Both organisms were detected on four occasions from the postround hand cultures in the chlorhexidine group. Acinetobacter anitratus was not removed by pre-round disinfection, and was found on five and 11 occasions from the postround hand cultures in the ethanol gauze and chlorhexidine groups, respectively.