Background: Deep wound infection in spine surgery is a debilitating complication for patients and increases costs. The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the efficacy of wound pulse irrigation with a dilute povidone-iodine solution in the prevention of surgical site infection.
Methods: 50 patients undergoing spinal surgery were randomly divided into two groups (A and B) of 25 patients each. In group A, wounds were irrigated with dilute (3%) povidone-iodine solution through a low-pressure pulsatile device. In group B, wounds were irrigated with saline solution through a bulb syringe. In both groups, specimens for bacterial culture were harvested from surgical site before and after irrigation.
Results: In group A, no surgical site infection occurred; in group B, deep wound infection was observed in 3 patients. In both groups, before irrigation some cultures have been found positive for bacterial contamination.
Conclusion: Our study seems to support the idea that low-pressure pulsating lavage of surgical wounds with povidone-iodine diluted to a nontoxic concentration of 3% is an effective therapeutic adjunct measure to prevent surgical site infection in spine surgery. However, the number of the enrolled patients is small and a significant statistical analysis is not practicable. This trial is registered with NCT03249363.