Sealing the catheter exit site with dressing film and its effectiveness in preventing exit-site infection: bacterial culture.

In this study, we performed exit-site care using one of three methods (A: cleanse the exit site with povidone-iodine daily and apply gauze dressing; B: cleanse the exit site with povidone-iodine once a week, cover the site with a small gauze, and seal it completely with dressing film; C: the same as in B, above, except once every two weeks). The results show that there was a higher rate of positive bacterial growth in method A (17/24, 71%), and we concluded that the sterility of the exit site was not maintained 24 hours after cleansing. In methods B and C, in which the exit site was kept sealed, we did not detect bacterial growth in almost any of the cases (B = 0/44, C = 1/7). Although the patients took a bath and did not perform any care of the exit site for one to two weeks, the results show that the exit site was protected from bacterial invasion. We believe that this method could reduce exit-site infection while requiring no daily care.