Relationship between chlorhexidine gluconate concentration and microbial colonization of patients’ skin
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Relationship between chlorhexidine gluconate concentration and microbial colonization of patients’ skin



Public Access Version Available on: November 28, 2025, 12:00 AM
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English

Details:

  • Alternative Title:
    Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Objective:

    To characterize the relationship between chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) skin concentration and skin microbial colonization.

    Design:

    Serial cross-sectional study.

    Setting/participants:

    Adult patients in medical intensive care units (ICUs) from 7 hospitals; from 1 hospital, additional patients colonized with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) from both ICU and non-ICU settings. All hospitals performed routine CHG bathing in the ICU.

    Methods:

    Skin swab samples were collected from adjacent areas of the neck, axilla, and inguinal region for microbial culture and CHG skin concentration measurement using a semiquantitative colorimetric assay. We used linear mixed effects multilevel models to analyze the relationship between CHG concentration and microbial detection. We explored threshold effects using additional models.

    Results:

    We collected samples from 736 of 759 (97%) eligible ICU patients and 68 patients colonized with CPE. On skin, gram-positive bacteria were cultured most frequently (93% of patients), followed by Candida species (26%) and gram-negative bacteria (20%). The adjusted odds of microbial recovery for every twofold increase in CHG skin concentration were 0.84 (95% CI, 0.80–0.87; P < .001) for gram-positive bacteria, 0.93 (95% CI, 0.89–0.98; P = .008) for Candida species, 0.96 (95% CI, 0.91–1.02; P = .17) for gram-negative bacteria, and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.84–1.06; P = .33) for CPE. A threshold CHG skin concentration for reduced microbial detection was not observed.

    Conclusions:

    On a cross-sectional basis, higher CHG skin concentrations were associated with less detection of gram-positive bacteria and Candida species on the skin, but not gram-negative bacteria, including CPE. For infection prevention, targeting higher CHG skin concentrations may improve control of certain pathogens.

  • Source:
  • Pubmed ID:
    38804007
  • Pubmed Central ID:
    PMC11705612
  • Document Type:
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