The effect of washing with chlorhexidine soap on wound infection rate in general surgery. A controlled clinical study.

Postoperative wound infections in clean surgery were studied to compare the effect of preoperative whole body disinfection with chlorhexidine soap with that of local washing and no washing at all, respectively. The study includes 1530 operations for biliary tract disease, inguinal hernia and breast cancer. The overall infection rate was 3.4%. Among patient who had a preoperative shower with Chlorhexidine the wound infection rate was significantly reduced.