Visibility of Surgical Site Marking: A Prospective Randomized Trial of Two Skin Preparation Solutions

This report has been verified by one or more authors of the original publication.

20 patients undergoing primary total hip arthroplasty were randomized to undergo surgical preparation using either an iodine-based or chlorhexidine solution. Prior to preparation, patients were marked with three random letters at the surgical site using a permanent marker. Following evaluations, qualitative and quantitative effects of the surgical preparation with the two solutions indicated that the use of an iodine-based solution resulted in a smaller contrast change and a greater number of correct letter identifications.