The comparative efficacy and safety of 5% povidone-iodine cream for topical antisepsis.

A 5% povidone-iodine cream (Betadine Cream, The Purdue Frederick Company, Norwalk, Conn.) was tested extensively to determine its safety and efficacy. Results of in vitro microbiologic comparison found that a representative panel of vegetative test organisms couldn't be recovered after 60 seconds or less exposure to povidone-iodine (PVP-I) cream, whereas the kill time of the combination-antibiotic cream (Neosporin Cream, Burroughs Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, NC) exceeded 15 minutes for at least half of vegetative organisms. PVP-I cream produced a log reduction of Bacillus pumilis spores after less than one hour's exposure; the antibiotic cream did not. Both PVP-I and antibiotic creams were essentially non-irritating in human and in vivo animal studies. In open wounds, 5% PVP-I cream caused little or no burning and pain upon application. In human comparisons, artificially induced, standardized lesions inoculated with Staphylococcus aureus, were treated twice daily with PVP-I cream or triple-antibiotic ointment (Neosporin Ointment, Burroughs Wellcome, Research Triangle Park, NC) over three weeks. Both caused significantly reduced bacterial counts (p less than 0.001), and significantly faster healing (p less than 0.05) than no treatment.