Study comparing the effectiveness of chlorhexidine, calcium hydroxide and linezolid based medicaments against enterococcus faecalis.

PURPOSE

This study evaluated the efficacy of 2% chlorhexidine (CX), calcium hydroxide (CH), Vitapex® (VP), linezolid (LZ), a combination of LZ with CH (LC) against Enterococcus faecalis (EF).

STUDY DESIGN

EF strains were mixed with peptone water and the turbidity was adjusted to the McFarland's turbidity standard tube No: 0.5. The inoculum obtained was used to make lawn cultures on the agar plates. A total of 30 agar plates were prepared, such that each plate had five wells containing the five medicaments. The plates were incubated and evaluated for zones of inhibition after intervals of 24 hours and 72 hours. The results were statistically evaluated by paired t-test, ANOVA and Post-hoc analysis using Tukey's HSD.

RESULTS

The difference between values of the zones of inhibition around various medicaments after 24 hours and 72 hours was found to be statistically significant. A comparison between the five groups after 24 hours or 72 hours showed that each group differed significantly from the rest of the groups.

CONCLUSIONS

LC had the greatest effectiveness against EF, followed by LZ, CX, VP and CH.