A Porcine Model for the Development and Testing of Preoperative Skin Preparations

Clinical preoperative skin preparations (PSPs) do not eradicate skin flora dwelling in the deepest dermal regions. Survivors constitute a persistent infection risk. In search of solutions, we created a porcine model intended for PSP developmental testing. This model employed microbiological techniques sensitive to the deep-dwelling microbial flora as these microorganisms are frequently overlooked when using institutionally-entrenched testing methodologies. Clinical gold-standard PSPs were assessed. Ten Yorkshire pigs were divided into two groups: prepared with either povidone iodine (PVP-I) or chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) PSP. Bioburdens were calculated on square, 4 cm by 4 cm, full-thickness skin samples homogenized in neutralizing media. Endogenous bioburden of porcine skin (3.3 log(10) CFU/cm(2)) was consistent with natural flora numbers in dry human skin. On-label PSP scrub kits with PVP-I (n = 39) or CHG (n = 40) failed the 2–3 log(10)-reduction criteria established for PSPs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), resulting in a 1.46 log(10) and 0.58 log(10) reduction, respectively. Porcine dermal microbiota mirrored that of humans, displaying abundant staphylococcal species. Likewise, histological sections showed similarity in hair follicle depths and sebaceous glands (3.2 ± 0.7 mm). These shared characteristics and the considerable fraction of bacteria which survived clinical PSPs make this model useful for developmental work.