Comparing the Effects of Normal Saline and 0.05 Betadine on Bacterial Culture Results Obtained from Conjunctiva before and After Irrigation during Cataract Surgery

Objective: To compare the effects of normal saline and 0.05 betadine on bacterial cultures obtained from eye conjunctiva before and after irrigation during cataract surgery. Methodology: It was a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) in patients with cataract. Culture samples were obtained from the inferior fornix prior to periocular prep and after preparation. Subsequently, inside the eyes and fornices were irrigated with 10 cc normal saline or 4 cc 5% betadine for 3 minutes. Once the data were fed into SPSS software, they were analyzed using ÷2, Fisher’s and McNemar’s tests. Results: We obtained 89 positive culture samples (52.4%) before prep (including 38 samples in the normal saline group and 51 samples in the betadine group), 12 positive culture samples (7.1%) after prep, and 8 positive culture samples (4.7%) at the end of surgery. There was no significant relationship between the two groups; however, irrigation was found to be effective in reducing positive cultures in both groups (p 0.001). Conclusion: Using 5% betadine for periocular prep and normal saline for conjunctival irrigation is as effective as using betadine for prep and irrigation in terms of reducing positive cultures after cataract surgery.