Chlorhexidine-alcohol compared with povidone-iodine-alcohol skin antisepsis protocols in major cardiac surgery: a randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: Whether skin disinfection of the surgical site using chlorhexidine-alcohol is superior to povidone-iodine-alcohol in reducing reoperation and surgical site infection rates after major cardiac surgery remains unclear.

Methods: CLEAN 2 was a multicenter, open-label, randomized, two-arm, assessor-blind, superiority trial conducted in eight French hospitals. We randomly assigned adult patients undergoing major heart or aortic surgery via sternotomy, with or without saphenous vein or radial artery harvesting, to have all surgical sites disinfected with either 2% chlorhexidine-alcohol or 5% povidone-iodine-alcohol.

Protect peripheral intravenous catheters: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a novel antimicrobial dressing for peripheral intravenous catheters (ProP trial).

Introduction: Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are the most commonly used vascular access device in hospitalised patients. Yet PIVCs may be complicated by local or systemic infections leading to increased healthcare costs. Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG)-impregnated dressings may help reduce PIVC-related infectious complications but have not yet been evaluated.

Rhizophagus irregularis, the model fungus in arbuscular mycorrhiza research, forms dimorphic spores.

Rhizophagus irregularis is the model species for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) research and the most widely propagated species for commercial plant biostimulants. Using asymbiotic and symbiotic cultivation systems initiated from single spores, advanced microscopy, Sanger sequencing of the glomalin gene, and PacBio sequencing of the partial 45S rRNA gene, we show that four strains of R. irregularis produce spores of two distinct morphotypes, one corresponding to the morphotype described in the R.

Peripheral venous catheter colonization after skin disinfection with 0.5% aqueous sodium hypochlorite, preceded or not by one application of 70% ethanol (DACLEAN): a single-centre, randomized, open-label, pilot study.

Few data are available on the efficacy of 0.5% aqueous sodium hypochlorite (SH) for skin disinfection before peripheral catheter insertion. A total of 239 patients were randomly assigned to either one application of SH alone or one application of SH preceded by one application of 70% ethanol (ET-SH).

Continuous Pneumatic Regulation of Tracheal Cuff Pressure to Decrease Ventilator-associated Pneumonia in Trauma Patients Who Were Mechanically Ventilated: The AGATE Multicenter Randomized Controlled Study.

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most frequent health care-associated infection in severely ill patients, and aspiration of contaminated oropharyngeal content around the cuff of the tracheal tube is the main route of contamination.

Research Question: Is continuous regulation of tracheal cuff pressure using a pneumatic device superior to manual assessment three times daily using a portable manometer (routine care) in preventing VAP in patients with severe trauma?

Study Design And Methods: In this open-label, randomized controlled superiority trial conducted in 13 French ICUs, adults (age ≥ 18 years) with severe trauma (Injury Severity Score > 15) and requiring invasive mechanical ventilation for ≥ 48 h were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) via a secure Web-based random number generator in permuted blocks of variable sizes to one of two groups according to the method of tracheal cuff pressure control.