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Surgical site infection complicates up to 12% of cesarean deliveries in the U.S. To test the relative efficacy of two common preoperative agents for skin antisepsis, researchers randomized 572 women to 2% chlorhexidine with 70% isopropyl alcohol and 575 women to 8.3% povidone-iodine with 72.5% isopropyl alcohol. Overall, >99% of participants received intravenous antibiotics prior to skin incision.
Within 30 days after cesarean delivery, surgical site infection occurred in 4.0% versus 7.3% of women in the chlorhexidine and iodine groups, respectively (relative risk, 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.34–0.90; P=0.02). Superficial surgical site infection occurred in 3.0% and 4.9% of the chlorhexidine and iodine groups, respectively (P=0.10), and…