Over here in the Dutch hospitals we're moving away from betadine and alcohol, and have switched to Hibicet: a diluted mix of chlorine-hexidine and Certrimide.

I'm going to replace the antiseptics in my FAK with this. It comes in both large bottles and 15-ml ampules

Anyone heard of it over there or has got any experience with it?

So far, I don't know as there's been any improvement over the original anti-microbial agent used in hospitals 150 years ago. Carbolic acid in weak solution is still probably one of the best out there. Nurses used to walk through the wards of hospitals with little perfume atomizers full of the stuff spraying the air around patients beds and having great success controlling infections.

Of course we know the chemical by it's hazmat name, Phenol. Good luck trying to get any nowadays.

This is also the direction the US is going. I used to work for a specialty pharmacy, about a couple years ago we changed our protocol for IV's, PICC lines, and Central Lines from betadine/alcohol to 2% Chlorhexidine Gluconate/70% Isopropyl Alcohol preparations. The products we used were Chloraprep and Chlorascrub. This change follows a 2002 recommendation by the CDC. http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/521feat4.html


Wow, its been a long time since I posted here! =-)

ETA: Chlorhexidine Gluconate is also the antimicrobial in most surgical scrubs such as Hibiclense and Exidine

Chlorinated products aren't any better for the skin than the other halogenated products containing iodine etc. In high school I had a job as a dishwasher. One day our manager decided to help us out and filled our rinse tank and added the sterilizing agent. Of course she put in 10 times more than was needed, and you could smell the chlorine coming off this sink enough to make your nose burn. I had a job to do, so I got to it, and at the end of the shift sloughed off most of the first couple layers of skin from my hands. Doctors said it was the chlorine solution that got me.

Yes, it has replaced alcohol, useless as an antiseptic as it requires a 20min contact time. Betadine is out too, to many reactions I guess. Hibicet is a death on contact to micros, so it is the item of choice.
cheers

I'm supposed to call the local hospital to go on a rotation for EMS soon, so I'm going to see what they are using. Makes sense to swab the arm with this stuff prior to pushing in a needle if Alcohol takes 20 min. I assume that MRSA is taken care of as well Jim?

I think so, yeah. However Hibicat comes either in a 500ml. bottle or a single use 15-ml ampule. So I don't think it will be used for desinfecting injection-sites.

But it's pretty good for wound care and washing your hands (Hibiscrub)

Well, with the bottle, you could use a swab soaked in the solution and hit an injection site (not that I will be doing that for a long time). Sounds like interesting stuff and I'm surprised it didn't come up in training a few months back.

IMHO, stay simple (KISS)......soap and water and wash WELL!!!

Of course irrigating the wound with water or saline is the first step, but after that you can use something like Hibicet.