Raghubanshi Bijendra Raj, Sapkota Supriya, Adhikari Arjab, Dutta Aman, Bhattarai Utsuk, Bhandari Rastriyata
KIST Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Imadol, Lalitpur, Nepal.
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2017 Jun 15;6:68. doi: 10.1186/s13756-017-0224-x. eCollection 2017.
In developing countries like Nepal, 90% ethanol is cheap and is available in most hospitals. The unavailability of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in these settings led us to compare the efficacy between 90% ethanol and isopropyl alcohol pads in reducing the bacterial contamination of diaphragm of stethoscope.
A randomized blinded experimental study was carried out to determine the difference between cleaning stethoscopes with 90% ethanol and IPA. Cultures of diaphragm were taken before and after cleaning with one of the cleaning agent. Colony forming units (CFU) count and organism identification was done by a blinded investigator. CFU before and after cleaning were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the decrease in CFU count between the cleaning agents.
About 30% of the stethoscopes harbored potential pathogens. Significant reduction in CFU was observed with both IPA (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, value <0.001) and 90% ethanol (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, value <0.001). Comparing median decrease in CFU between cleaning with IPA and with 90% ethanol, no significant difference was found (Mann Whitney U test; U = 1357, value >0.05).
Both 90% ethanol and IPA are equally effective in decontaminating the diaphragm of stethoscope. Selection of agent should be done on the basis of cost and availability.
在尼泊尔这样的发展中国家，90%的乙醇价格便宜，大多数医院都有。在这些地方无法获得异丙醇（IPA），这促使我们比较90%乙醇和异丙醇擦拭巾在减少听诊器膜片细菌污染方面的效果。
进行了一项随机双盲实验研究，以确定用90%乙醇和IPA清洁听诊器之间的差异。在用其中一种清洁剂清洁前后，对膜片进行培养。由一位盲法研究者进行菌落形成单位（CFU）计数和微生物鉴定。使用Wilcoxon符号秩检验比较清洁前后的CFU。使用Mann Whitney U检验比较两种清洁剂之间CFU计数的减少情况。
约30%的听诊器携带潜在病原体。使用IPA（Wilcoxon符号秩检验，P值<0.001）和90%乙醇（Wilcoxon符号秩检验，P值<0.001）均观察到CFU显著减少。比较用IPA和90%乙醇清洁后CFU的中位数减少情况，未发现显著差异（Mann Whitney U检验；U = 1357，P值>0.05）。
90%乙醇和IPA在对听诊器膜片进行消毒方面同样有效。应根据成本和可获得性来选择清洁剂。
