title: Cyanoacrylate microbial sealants for skin preparation prior to surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Surgical site infections (i.e. incisions that become infected) are a continuing concern in health care. Microbial sealant is a liquid that can be applied to the skin immediately before surgery and is thought to help reduce the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) by sealing in the skin flora, thus preventing contamination and infection of the surgical site.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effects of the preoperative application of microbial sealants (compared with no microbial sealant) on rates of SSI in people undergoing clean surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  For this first update we searched the following electronic databases in July 2013: the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE - In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid EMBASE and EBSCO CINAHL.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were eligible for inclusion if they involved people undergoing clean surgery (i.e. surgery that does not involve the breathing system, gut, genital or urinary tract or any part of the body with an existing infection) in an operating theatre and compared the use of preoperative microbial sealants with no microbial sealant.
  
  
  METHODS
  All review authors independently extracted data on the characteristics, risk of bias and outcomes of the eligible trials.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three trials (524 participants undergoing clean surgery) met the inclusion criteria. The trials all compared cyanoacrylate microbial sealant with no sealant, and, when pooled, we found there were fewer SSIs with the use of microbial sealant (10/261 participants) than with the control comparison (29/274 participants). The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (risk ratio (RR) 0.36, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.72) but given the number of participants and quality of the studies, they should be treated with caution. There were some adverse events in one study, but these were not judged to be a result of the use of microbial sealant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this first update there is still insufficient evidence available to determine whether the use of microbial sealants reduces the risk of surgical site infection or not. Further rigorous, adequately-powered RCTs are required to investigate this properly.
authors: Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, Department of Care Sciences, University of South Wales, Glyn Taff Campus, Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taff, UK, CF37 1DL.
authors: Allyson
authors: A
authors: Lipp
authors: Cheryl
authors: C
authors: Phillips
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Harris
authors: Iwan
authors: I
authors: Dowie
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D003487:Cyanoacrylates / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D059685:Herniorrhaphy; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D003487:Cyanoacrylates