*2. Clean the skin with chlorhexidine*

Bottom Line: Disinfect clean skin with an appropriate antiseptic before catheter insertion and during dressing changes. A 2% chlorhexidine-based preparation is the preferred solution, Category IA [29].

Chaiyakunapruk et al., in their meta-analysis compared chlorhexidine versus povidone-iodine solution for vascular catheter site care, finding that the use of chlorhexidine reduces the risk for catheter-related bloodstream infection by 49% [30]. The same authors in another study, published one year later, concluded that the use of chlorhexidine, rather than povidone, for central catheter site care resulted in a 1.6% decrease in the incidence of catheter-related bloodstream infection, a 0.23% decrease in the incidence of death, and savings of \$113 per catheter used [31].
