Still Not Sterile: Chlorhexidine gluconate treatment does not completely reduce skin microbial bioburden and promotes pathogen overabundance in patients undergoing elective surgeries.
E. C. Townsend, K. Xu, K. De La Cruz, L. Huang, S. Sandstrom, D. Arend, O. Gromek, J. E. Scarborough, A. C. Huttenlocher, A. Gibson, L. Kalan
This study shows that chlorhexidine gluconate reduces viable skin microbial bioburden but does not achieve complete sterility, and temporarily increases pathogen abundance before microbiome recovery.
bioRxiv · Jul 20, 2024Microbiology