Efficacy of antimicrobial-impregnated scrubs in preventing healthcare provider contamination

Editor's Note

Antimicrobial-impregnated scrub clothes are not effective at reducing healthcare provider contamination, this study finds.

Cultures were obtained from each of 40 ICU nurses, the healthcare environment, and patients during each shift. Nurses wore standard cotton-polyester surgical scrubs (control), scrubs that contained a complex element compound with a silver-alloy embedded in its fibers (Scrub1), or scrubs impregnated with an organosilane-based quaternary ammonium and a hydrophobic fluoroacrylate copolymer emulsion (Scrub 2). The nurses were blinded to scrub type and randomly participated in all 3 arms of the study during 3 consecutive 12-hour shifts.

Analyses of 2,919 cultures from the environment and 2,185 from the nurses’ clothing showed that scrub type was not associated with a decrease in contamination.

Though antimicrobial-impregnated scrubs were not effective at reducing healthcare provider contamination, the environment is an important source of clothing contamination, the authors note. The nurses became newly contaminated with important pathogens during 19 of the 120 shifts (16%).

The Antimicrobial Scrub Contamination and Transmission (ASCOT) Trial: A Three-Arm, Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial With Crossover Design to Determine the Efficacy of Antimicrobial-Impregnated Scrubs in Preventing Healthcare Provider Contamination - Volume 38 Issue 10 - Deverick J. Anderson, Rachel Addison, Yuliya Lokhnygina, Bobby Warren, Batu Sharma-Kuinkel, Laura J. Rojas, Susan D.