Study design and participants
This pilot project was designed as an exploratory comparative clinical trial with two groups for comparison. All OR nurses (n = 14) employed at one cardiothoracic surgery department in Sweden and non-HCWs (n = 14) without any recent contact with medical care were invited to participate. The non-HCWs were adjusted to match the OR nurses, regarding gender. For both groups, exclusion criteria were artificial nails, hand eczema, jewellery or other preoperative hand disinfectant solution than protocol stated. The study has been performed in accordance with Declaration of Helsinki [20] and the Regional Ethical Review Board of Uppsala approved the study (reference number 2013/283). The study participants received oral and written information about the study, and written informed consent was obtained before data collection. The trial was registered at Research web (FOU in Sweden, 117,971) ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02359708). The data collection for the OR nurses was performed between March 2014 and June 2014 at an OR department in Sweden, and between December 2014 and April 2015 for the healthy participants.
Procedure for OR nurses
OR nurses, employees at the same OR department, were informed orally of the study and asked to participate in the study at a workplace meeting. Preoperatively, they performed preoperative hand disinfection accordingly to clinic routine by washing their hands under running water with soap and cleaning their nails if necessary for 1 min, and then drying their hands and forearms properly with paper and rubbing hands and forearms with a fluid alcohol (Dax preop 80, CCS Healthcare AB, Sweden). During surgery the OR nurses wore caps, masks, nonwoven surgical gowns (BARRIER, Mölnlycke Heath Care, Gothenburg, Sweden), and double gloves (Biogel PI indicator system, Mölnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden). Intraoperative, the OR nurses prepared and assisted at a clean surgery procedure until they were either relieved or the surgery was completed.
Procedure for non-HCWs
The non-HCWs were recruited from the first author’s circle of friends. The group consisted of office workers and students, all healthy individuals. The trial was performed at three occasions, with a maximum of five persons at a time, and took place at the same OR department as the nurses’ trial. All non-HCWs performed the preoperative hand disinfection with instructions and the assistance of an OR nurse, who also helped them with donning the nonwoven surgical gowns and double gloves (BARRIER® and Biogel PI system®, Mölnlycke Health Care, Gothenburg, Sweden). The gloves used did not contain any bactericidal agency and the size of the gowns and gloves were set by an experienced OR nurse. The non-HCWs performed the preoperative hand disinfection in the same manner as the OR nurses. To simulate nearly the same workload as preparing and assisting a patient for surgery, they performed a heart and lung resuscitation (HLR) course while dressed in gowns, caps, and gloves.
Data collection procedure
Skin cultures were taken at two time points, directly after the preoperative hand disinfection when the hands were dry, and again after wearing sterile surgical gloves and gowns. The OR nurses were sampled in total at seven sites, and the non-HCWs at six sites. The non-HCWs had six cultures taken because these participants’ gloves and gowns were not kept sterile during the HLR course; the culture from the glove cuff and gown interface was excluded. Sampling was performed by one of the researchers (CW). At the first time point cultures were obtained at three sites on the right hand: (1) in the palm, (2) between the index finger and middle finger, and (3) at the nail/cuticle of the index finger.
Cultures obtained at the second time point, at the end of surgery and the HLR course, respectively, after taking the gloves off, were obtained from (1) the hand palm, (2) between the index finger and the middle finger, and (3) at the nail/cuticle of the index finger (Fig. 1). The OR nurses had an additional culture taken at the glove cuff and gown interface, which was obtained before taking the gloves off.
All cultures were taken using a nylon-flocked swab (ESwab, Copan Italia S.p.A., Brescia, Italy). The swabs were moisturized with two drops of saline and rubbed for 15 s at the skin culture sites. The culture area was approximately 5 mm × 15 mm. At the nail site the area was smaller. The choice of culture swab was chosen for its ability to answer the research question and was based from a study testing its sensibility [21].
Cultures were kept cold until arrival at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Microbiology, and analysed according to a specific study protocol. The laboratory technician that performed the analysis was blinded regarding group allocation.
Culture analysis
The swabs were vortexed, and 50 μL of the media was subcultured on hematin agar medium 4.3% (w/v) (Columbia Blood Agar Base, Acumedia Neogen Corporation, Lansing, MI, USA) supplemented with 6% (v/v) chocolatized defibrinated horse blood and incubated at 36 °C aerobically. Samples were also subcultured on FAA plates (LAB 90 Fastidious Anaerobe Agar 4.6% (w/v); LAB M Ltd., Lancashire, UK), supplemented with 5% (v/v) defibrinated horse blood and incubated under anaerobic conditions (10% H2, 10% CO2, 80% N2) at 37 °C. After 24 and 48 h of aerobic incubation and 5 days of anaerobic incubation, bacterial growth was determined quantitatively (CFU/mL, colony-forming units per mL). Culture diagnostics and species verification were performed based on characteristic colony morphology and using routine diagnostic procedures, including MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MicroflexLT and Biotyper 3.1, Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany).
Statistical analysis
No previous study has been performed on this specific topic so sample size calculation was not possible. This study will enable us to perform a power calculation for future research. Analysis was performed using SPSS version 22 (SPSS Statistics; IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). The Bacterial counts and other non-normal distributed variables were analysed with Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Sign Ranks test comparing repeated measurements. Categorical variables were evaluated with chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate. Descriptive statistics are presented as means, median, numbers, percentage, confidence interval, standard deviation, and interquartile range (IQR). A p-value < 0.05, two tailed, was considered statistically significant.