The “five-second” rule for dropped food: does it apply to dropped medical objects in the operating room? A randomized study of disinfection approaches for contaminated arthroplasty implants
Polyethylene liners dropped onto operating room floors rapidly acquire bacterial contamination, including clinically important pathogens. In a randomized bench study, sterile chlorhexidine-alcohol and povidone-iodine immersion significantly reduced bioburden compared with ethanol or no intervention. When replacement is not feasible, chlorhexidine or iodine is preferable.
Authors
- Deverick J. Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6882-5496)
- Bobby Warren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7238-0300)
- Sean P. Ryan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4079-969X)
- Thorsten M. Seyler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1157-132X)
- William A. Jiranek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9036-8674)
- Jessica Seidelman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7117-513X)
- Guerbine Fils-Aime
- Eduardo Villoch
- David Weber
- Aaron Barrett
- Amanda M. Graves
- Christina Thomas
- Samuel Rosas
Institutions
- Xenex Disinfection Services (United States) (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Duke University Health System (US)
- University of North Carolina System (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
- Published
- 2026-03-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2026.10418
- Primary Topic
- Orthopedic Infections and Treatments
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00