Treatment of experimental peritonitis with intraperitoneal povidone-iodine solution

Intraperitoneal lavage with povidone-iodine solution has been reported by some to be beneficial in the treatment of peritonitis and by others to cause local and toxic side effects. In this study, 200 white mice, divided into four groups of 50, were subjected to bacterial peritonitis. The first group had no treatment; peritoneal lavage was carried out using povidone-iodine solution in the second group and a 0.9% sodium chloride solution in the third. In the fourth group, antibiotics (clindamycin and gentamicin) were instilled intraperitoneally without peritoneal lavage. The povidone-iodine solution had no beneficial effect, the death rate after 1 week (76%) being similar to that in the control group (78%) and much higher than that in mice treated with sodium chloride lavage (38%) and antibiotics without lavage (16%). A second series of experiments was, therefore, carried out to investigate the toxic effect of povidone-iodine solution intraperitoneally on mice without peritonitis; the solution was found to be toxic.