Abstract
Although the use of ethanol solution containing >0.5% chlorhexidine gluconate (chlorhexidine alcohol solution, CH-AL) as a skin disinfectant has been recommended in the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections in recent years, many institutions in Japan still use 10% povidone iodine. The superiority of CH-AL compared to povidone iodine has been repeatedly demonstrated, but the level of evidence for these studies has not always been high and the prophylactic effects at different CH-AL concentrations remain to be clarified. In order to evaluate the validity of CH-AL, high-quality comparative research is required regarding the relative efficacies of povidone iodine and CH-AL at various concentrations, including 0.5%, for the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections and catheter colonization.
