For the disinfection of the hands, a basic measure used in the prevention of nosocomial infections, the existing guidelines recommend the use of alcohol-based hand rub agents, such as those drawn up by CDC (USA). Since such agents have shortcomings, in recent years, gel-form disinfectants have been developed to overcome them and have started to be used for disinfection. However, some investigators have reported that the disinfection efficacy of gel-form agents is lower than that of liquid-based agents and so we conducted the present study to compare these two types of agent in this regard using the palm stamp method.
Nine subjects used gel-form disinfectants (hand rub agents containing 76.9-81.4 v/v% ethanol) and another nine subjects used a liquid-form disinfectant (hand rub agents containing 0.2 v/v% benzalkonium chloride and 83 v/v% ethanol). In the gel agent group, the average bacterial count decreased from 383.0±433.9 (mean±SD) before disinfection to 19.1±16.0 after disinfection. In the liquid agent group, the average bacterial count decreased from 609.3±789.7 to 84.7±186.5. The bacterial removal rate was 91.6%±8.6 in the gel agent group and 85.4%±12.3 in the liquid agent group. After disinfection, no MRSA, enterococci or Gram-negative rods were evident in either group. These results demonstrate that gel agents achieve adequate bacterial removal from hands immediately after use and that their disinfecting effect is satisfactory from a clinical point of view. They also indicate that gel-form disinfectants are a promising means of disinfecting the hands of healthcare professionals in the clinical setting.
