Many methods have been described for the preoperative hand disinfection so far, but recently quaternary ammonium compounds and Hexachlorophene are widely used.
First, the bacteriological experiments were made on the scrubbing with lysol and modified technic of Fürbringer's method, which has been being adopted until recently in our clinic.
Next, the comparative experiments were made on various technics of scrubbing with the Hyamine solution and the G-11 soap containing 2 per cent of Hexachlorophene.
The results obtained are as follows:
1. The modified technic of Fürbringer's method is bacteriologically more effective in comparison with various technics of scrubbing with G-11 soap and Hyamine solution. But it irritates the skin, takes much more time and is troublesome.
2. Lysol has little utility value as a hand disinfectant.
3. Single scrubbing with G-11 soap is not so much effective as enthusiastically claimed.
4. The 1: 100 Hyamine solution used carefully is effective by itself. But 5-minute scrubbing with G-11 soap followed by 3-minute washing with the 1: 100 Hyamine solution shows almost the same effect as that of modified technic of Fürbringer's method. Moreover it causes little irritation of the skin.