| evaluation of skin antisepsis prior to blood culture in neonates. | in our intensive care nursery, coagulase-negative staphylococcus is the most frequent blood culture isolate. as skin antisepsis is critical in preventing blood culture contamination, we examined the efficacy of the chlorhexidine tincture (ch) used in our nursery for this purpose. staphylococcus epidermidis colonized the forearms of 88% of infants tested, in a mean density of 10(4) organisms/cm2. following a 60-second application of ch (0.5% in 70% ethanol), bacterial growth from forearm skin rem ... | 1984 | 6567613 |