RE: Surgical Site Prep - Also alcohol / foil and ECG

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 19:36:30 GMT

Re. Surgical skin prep, chloroprep is the only CHG/IPA available commercially. We are taught to use the back and forth (friction method) as there is an evidence base for this being more effective than the circular method (although I think this may have been extrapolated from a human study involving prepping for blood collection) - see the chloroprep website for advice and evidence re. technique and chemicals used.

If you wanted to mix your own IPA/CHG and apply it in a sterile manner, you could prepare autoclave bags containing a bowl, some cut up pieces of hand sponge and a pair of artery forceps. Open the bag for the scrubbed vet who holds the bowl into which the prep is poured, then the vet can use the forceps and sponge to apply the final prep. For the cost and the hassle though, you might as well use the commercial stuff.

I personally wouldn't use spirit bottles at all, whether the spray or pour type, they pick up pseudomonas. If you're working to a tight budget, I would rather just use hibi by itself for final prep, applied with gloves and sterile swabs.

Foil blankets are great but why not just use bubble wrap in these cases if it's interfering with the ECG.