benzalkonium chloride for skin preparation

[Criddle, Angie]

Good morning,
Our hospital pharmacy recently had a request from one of our visiting
surgeons to get a product called benzalkonium chloride for use as a skin
prep. They were unable to source a supplier so I would like to know if
this product is still in use.
Many thanks,

Angie

Angie Criddle | Regional Clinical Nurse Specialist |

Infection Control | WACHS Midwest |

(08) 9956 2437 | angela.criddle@health.wa.gov.au

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[Matthias.Maiwald@KKH.COM.SG Subject: Re: benzalkonium chloride for skin preparation In-Reply-To:]

Dear Angie,

If this is for true surgical skin prep or for presurgical preparation of
mucous membranes (one might want to check what exactly he/she is proposing
it for, and in what formulation), then benzalkonium chloride is genuinely
unsuitable for that purpose. Its characteristics are more those of a
preservative (e.g. eye drops against bacterial contamination), and the
microbial killing is just too weak for presurgical skin or mucous membrane
preparation.

For superficial skin, the agents of choice are alcoholic formulations, such
as 70% isopropanol supplemented with either chlorhexidine or
povidone-iodine. For mucous membranes, aqueous (water-based) povidone
iodine or chlorhexidine are suitable. In Europe, there is also octenidine
for the latter purpose, but that is not available in Australia.

Best regards, Matthias.

—
Matthias Maiwald, MD, FRCPA
Consultant in Microbiology
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
100 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 229899
Tel. +65 6394 1389
Fax +65 6394 1387

“Criddle, Angie”
To
Sent by: AICA AICALIST@AICALIST.ORG.AU
Infexion cc
Connexion
benzalkonium chloride for skin
preparation

10/11/2010 10:56
AM

Please respond to
AICA Infexion
Connexion

Good morning,
Our hospital pharmacy recently had a request from one of our visiting
surgeons to get a product called benzalkonium chloride for use as a skin
prep. They were unable to source a supplier so I would like to know if
this product is still in use.
Many thanks,

Angie
Angie Criddle | Regional Clinical Nurse Specialist |
Infection Control | WACHS Midwest |
(08) 9956 2437 | angela.criddle@health.wa.gov.au

Messages posted to this list are solely the opinion of the authors, and do
not represent the opinion of AICA.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives –
registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new
message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to
aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without
the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

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