Background: Surgical site infection is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality following caesarean delivery.
Objective: To determine whether standardising intraoperative irrigation with 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate during caesarean delivery could decrease infection rates.
Methods: This was a process improvement project involving 742 women, 343 of whom received low-pressured 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate irrigation during caesarean delivery over a one-year period. Infection rates were compared with a standard-of-care control group (399 women) undergoing caesarean delivery the preceding year.
Results: The treatment group infection rate met the study goal by achieving a lower infection rate than the control group, though this was not statistically significant. A significant interaction effect between irrigation with 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate and antibiotic administration time existed, such that infection occurrence in the treatment group was not dependent on antibiotic timing, as opposed to the control group infection occurrence, which was dependent on antibiotic timing.
Conclusion: Intraoperative irrigation with 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate during caesarean delivery did not statistically significantly reduce the rate of infections. It did render the impact of antibiotic administration timing irrelevant in prevention of surgical site infection. This suggests a role for 0.05% chlorhexidine gluconate irrigation in mitigating infection risk whether antibiotic prophylaxis timing is suboptimal or ideal.
Keywords: Chlorhexidine gluconate; Intraoperative irrigation; Post-caesarean surgical site infection; Surgical wound irrigation.