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INFECTION PREVENTION
David Sellars, DPh
Antiseptic Doesn't Mean Contamination-Free
Ensure your prep and cleaning solutions prevent,
instead of contribute to, infection.
C
ould your preps and disinfectants be contaminated? The
answer's yes — and it might be happening more often than
you think.
That's right: Infections associated with contaminated antiseptic prod-
ucts may be more common than indicated by manufacturers' reports
and the medical literature, according to FDA
researchers published in
the New England
Journal of Medicine.
Because preps and disinfectants aren't sterile
products, produced
under sterile conditions
and stored as such,
they're open to contamination by microbial
organisms during manufacturing or use.
Although it's difficult
to know the extent of
CONTAMINATED PREPS? Should preps be produced under sterile conditions and stored as such?
M A R C H 2013 | O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
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