Saline water better than soap and water for cleaning wounds, researchers find

Public Release: 15-Dec-2015
Saline water better than soap and water for cleaning wounds, researchers find
Findings may have important implications for the care of patients with open fractures worldwide
McMaster University

Many scientific advances have been made in the delivery of care and infection prevention for open fractures, but the standard practice of wound cleaning with soap and water before surgery has remain the unchanged. Now, an international team of researchers led by McMaster University in collaboration with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre has found that soap and water is actually less effective than just using saline water.

The findings, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to significant cost savings, particularly in developing countries where open fractures are particularly common.

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"There has been a lot of controversy about the best way to clean the dirt and debris from serious wounds with bone breaks," says Dr. Mohit Bhandari, principal investigator and a professor of surgery for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster. "All wounds need to be cleaned out -- a process known as debridement -- but evidence shows that cleaning wounds with soap was not better than just water, which was unexpected."

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