The pencil eraser swab technique to quantify Cutibacterium acnes on shoulder skin.

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Cutibacterium acnes is the most common cause of postoperative infections in orthopaedic shoulder surgery and is hard to eradicate with current measures. Newer strategies focus on reducing bacterial load on the skin before surgery. Several previous studies have used a large number of both described and undescribed sampling techniques. The purpose of this study was to compare three previously described swab techniques to obtain bacterial cultures: Levine's (L) technique, the Z technique and the pencil eraser swab (PES) technique. Methods: Three consecutive skin swabs were collected from the right shoulder, on 15 healthy male volunteers, using Levine's technique, Z technique and PES technique from each participant. To determine the number of living bacteria,

SUBMITTER: Scheer VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8738962 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature