Trial reportJournal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association2009
Does skin cleansing with chlorhexidine affect skin condition, temperature and colonization in hospitalized preterm low birth weight infants?: a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chlorhexidine bathing of the critically ill for the prevention of hospital-acquired infection.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Potential NICU Environmental Influences on the Neonate's Microbiome: A Systematic Review.Advances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses · 2015Pooled it
- Octenidine or Sterile Water Cleansing and Late-Onset Sepsis in Neonates in the NICU: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Antiseptic Cleansing to Reduce Vertical Transmission of Pathogens to Neonates: The NeoVT-AMR Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Effectiveness and safety of chlorhexidine gluconate double-cleansing for surgical site infection prevention in neonatal intensive care unit surgical patients.Annals of surgical treatment and research · 2024Article
- Safety and efficacy of whole-body chlorhexidine gluconate cleansing with or without emollient in hospitalised neonates (NeoCHG): a multicentre, randomised, open-label, factorial pilot trial.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- Myelin toxicity of chlorhexidine in zebrafish larvae.Pediatric research · 2023Article
- Early detection of cold stress to prevent hypothermia: A narrative review.SAGE open medicine · 2023Review
- Safety of chlorhexidine gluconate used for skin antisepsis in the preterm infant.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine if single skin cleansing with 0.25% chlorhexidine affects skin condition, temperature and bacterial colonization in stable preterm (28-36 weeks gestational age) low birth weight (1001-2000 g) infants admitted in a health facility.
methodsEligible infants were randomized within 3 h of birth into the following three groups: chlorhexidine, normal saline or no skin cleansing. Infants in the first two groups were wiped once with baby wipes containing either 0.25% chlorhexidine or saline. Skin condition, axillary temperature and skin colonization rates in the axilla and the groin were assessed at specified time intervals after intervention.
resultsIn all, 60 infants were included in the study (20 in each group). Median skin condition scores at 72 and 168 h after the intervention were 2 and 2, respectively, in all three groups. At 30 min after skin cleansing, two infants each in the chlorhexidine and saline cleansing groups and none in the no cleansing group experienced cold stress (36-36.4 degrees C). There was, however, no difference in mean skin temperature of the groups (36.6 degrees C). At 24 h, skin colonization rates in the axilla were 22.2, 52.7, and 57.9%, respectively, in the chlorhexidine, saline and no cleansing groups (P=0.06); skin cleansing with chlorhexidine reduced the incidence of colonization by 62% compared with no cleansing (relative risk (RR): 0.38, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.15, 0.98), but there was no significant reduction when compared with saline cleansing (RR: 0.42; 0.16-1.10). Axillary colonization rates at 72 h and colonization at the groin at 24 and 72 h were not significantly different across the three groups.
conclusionSingle skin cleansing with 0.25% chlorhexidine did not adversely affect skin condition or temperature in hospitalized preterm infants and reduced axillary-skin colonization at 24 h after the intervention. Trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy of such an intervention on the incidence of infections in preterm neonates.
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