Effect of Scrubbing and Irrigation on Staphylococcal and Streptococcal Counts in Contaminated Lacerations

We studied the effects of scrubbing with poloxamer 188 (SCR), irrigating with povidone iodine (PI), and scrubbing followed by irrigation (SCR-PI) on staphylococcal and streptococcal counts in inoculated guinea pig lacerations. PI irrigation and SCR-PI significantly lowered streptococcal counts (P < 0.05). Staphylococcal counts were not different from those in controls. Wound sepsis among sutured lacerations causes impaired healing, pain, poor cosmesis, and loss of function (2). Clinicians scrub and irrigate traumatic lacerations (10) in an effort to reduce pyogenic bacteria (1, 12, 13). However, the best way to clean outpatient wounds has not been estab-lished (10). We used an animal model to compare three techniques. Our University Animal Care and Use Committee ap-proved the experimental protocol. We studied 22 albino guinea pigs weighing between 500 and 1,100 g. The technique was modified from an established animal model (4, 6, 9, 11)