Effect of Skin Disinfection according to the Disinfection Frequency in Peripheral Intravenous Therapy

Abstract

Purpose: For this study the effect of skin disinfection according to the disinfection frequency in peripheral intravenous therapy was examined.Methods: One hundred and twenty skin disinfections, three sections on the right forearm and three sections on the left forearm, were performed on each of 20 seniors in the school of nursing, and 240 microbial cultures were performed before and after the skin disinfection at each site. Single-use sterile packaged 83% alcohol cotton was used to disinfect. The skin was disinfected once, twice, or three times for 5 seconds per session and then allowed to dry for one minute. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE).Results: There was no significant difference in the number of microbial colonies by the number of disinfections (<i>p</i>=.599) as well as the number of microbial colonies among those disinfected the same number of times (<i>p</i>=.440). However, the number of microbial colonies after disinfection was significantly lower than that before disinfection (<i>p</i><.001). The interaction effect, which was the difference in the decrease of microbial colonies by the number of disinfections, was not significant (<i>p</i>=.101).Conclusion: Prior to peripheral intravenous injection, disinfecting the skin once for five seconds with an 83% alcohol swab was as effective as disinfecting it twice for 10 seconds or three times for 15 seconds. Therefore, disinfecting the skin thoroughly for 5 seconds or more with an 83% alcohol cotton swab is sufficient for peripheral vein injections in the clinical field.