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Chlorhexidine versus sterile water vaginal wash during labor to prevent peripartum infection
K M Sweeten1, N L Eriksen, J D Blanco
1Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Texas Medical School, Lyndon Baines Johnson General Hospital, Houston 77026, USA.
Objective:
Our purpose was to determine whether a dilute solution of chlorhexidine used as a one-time vaginal wash intrapartum can reduce the incidence of intraamniotic infection or endometritis in laboring pregnant women.
Study Design:
Term pregnant women in labor were prospectively randomized to receive either 20 ml of 0.4% chlorhexidine (n = 481) or 20 ml of sterile water (n = 466) placebo. All patients were monitored for risk factors associated with intraamniotic infection. Continuous variables were compared with the Mann-Whitney U test and discrete variables were compared with Fisher's exact test.
Results:
No significant differences in infection were found between the chlorhexidine and placebo groups. During the study period 21 of 466 women (4.5%) had intraamniotic infection in the control group compared with 25 of 481 women (5.2%) receiving chlorhexidine (p = 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 1.41). Nine women in the placebo group (1.9%) and 9 women in the chlorhexidine group (1.9%) had endometritis (p = 1.0, 95% confidence interval 0.62 to 1.56).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that a one-time 0.4% chlorhexidine vaginal wash does not decrease the incidence of infectious morbidity in parturients, compared with the use of sterile water.
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