Punctured wounds may create local infection problems, if they
originate from contaminated sharp objects such as knives or pointed
objects such as nails, thorns and insect bites. These wounds can lead to
cellulites, soft tissue infections, osteomyelitis and tetanus.
P.aeruginosa and S. aureus are the most frequent causative agents.
The surgical site infection (SSI) wound has always been
recognized as a site of increased infection risk. Excellent guidelines
and recommendations for prevention of SSI have been published by the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to this
system, SSI is classified into superficial incision, deep incision and
organ/space infections. The most frequent causative microorganisms of
SSI are S.aureus (17% to 20%), coagulase-negative Staphylococci (12% to
14%), Enterococci (12% to 13%), E.coli (8% to 10%) P.aeruginosa (8%),
Enterobacter species (7% to 8%), other Anterobacteriaceae (3% to 7%) and
Candida Albicans (2% to 3%).
The survival of patients with burn wounds has increased
considerably since the early 1970s. However, infections are still the
most common cause of death in burn patients.
The prevention of burn wound infection must aim at both,
reducing the infection susceptibility of the wound and limiting the
extent of microbial colonization by preventing the transmission of
pathogens to the wound and reducing their numbers in the wound.
Prevention of infection and treatment of the wound consists of cleaning and removal of any residual foreign body.
The selection of antiseptic agent is very important. The
antiseptic agent should have broad spectrum anti-microbial activity,
specifically against Staphylococcus aureus, the commonest cause of
infection. It should have pronounced detergent properties to cleanse the
dirty wound.
An ideal antiseptic product should cleanse the dirty wound
thoroughly, protect against infection and help in healing faster without
hurting.