title: Quantitation of skin bacteria: lethality of the wash solution used to remove bacteria.
abstract: A widely used technique for the quantitative removal of bacteria from the skin uses a detergent, Triton X-100 (p, t-octylphenoxynonaethoxyethanol), to remove and suspend the bacteria. We determined the half-life for the survival of five common skin bacteria suspended in the solution. The shortest-lived was Streptococcus pyogenes with a half-life of 0.9 hours. All of the others (Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Klebsiella pneumoniae) had half-lives of 1.5 hours or longer. K. pneumoniae, the only Gram-negative species tested, had a half-life of more than 30 hours. Thus, a one hour delay in plating and incubation of samples suspended in this detergent solution inhibits quantitation of most species tested.
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011425:Propionibacterium acnes / Q000187:drug effects; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000187:drug effects; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D011092:Polyethylene Glycols