ORLANDO - April 7, 2008 - 3M Health Care announced today that its newest member of its infection prevention platform, 3M™ Tegaderm™ CHG (chlorhexidine gluconate) IV Securement Dressing, demonstrated excellent long-term, surface antimicrobial activity against diverse microbial species with superior prevention of flora regrowth on prepped skin of healthy subjects, according to studies presented today at the 18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).
Dr. Dennis Maki, Professor of Medicine, Section of Infectious Disease, University of Wisconsin Medical School and attending hospital epidemiologist, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics presented the results of three separate, comparative studies on healthy subjects. 3M™ Tegaderm™ CHG demonstrated:
- Significantly greater suppression of skin flora regrowth at 7 and 10 days compared to a transparent dressing control (p<0.0001; p<0.0003)
- Significantly greater suppression of skin flora regrowth compared to Johnson and Johnson抯 BIOPATCH?at 7 days (p<0.02)
- Significantly more effective than Johnson and Johnson抯 BIOPATCH? at reducing normal skin flora on unprepped skin for up to 10 days (p<0.0008)
揟hese studies underscore the role dressings play as part of an integrated approach to prevent infections in the contemporary health care setting,?said Kelley Boyer, Vascular Access Marketing Manager, 3M Health Care. ?M has developed an innovative means to help protect the IV site ?it抯 easy to use and provides continual antimicrobial protection to keep skin flora counts low.?/p>
"Hospitals and clinics are facing increasing pressure to prevent healthcare-associated infections," said Dr. Mark Rupp, Medical Director of the Department of Healthcare Epidemiology-Infection Control at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the principal investigator of one of the studies presented at the SHEA Meeting. "Tegaderm™ CHG is an innovative means to potentially minimize the occurrence of intravascular catheter-associated infection."
Significant Health and Economic Impact
Catheter-related blood stream infections (CR-BSIs) have become a major, public health concern as intravascular catheters have increasingly become necessary components of in-patient hospital care. Hospitals and clinics purchase more than 150 million intravascular catheters every year for myriad uses including administration of IV fluids, nutrition and medications. While indispensable to providing care, catheters increase a patient抯 risk for infections, including CR-BSIs, which can be life threatening.
In the last three decades, the number of bloodstream infections has nearly tripled in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 80,000 such infections occur in the intensive care units of U.S. hospitals each year, and that estimate increases to 250,000 if entire hospitals are assessed.
About Tegaderm™ CHG
Tegaderm™ CHG is a transparent, antimicrobial dressing used to cover and protect catheter sites and to secure devices to skin. It consists of a transparent adhesive dressing and an integrated gel pad containing the highly effective antiseptic agent, chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG).
3M testing in healthy subjects has shown that Tegaderm™ CHG reduces the amount of skin flora under the dressing and prevents re-growth.* 3M in vitro testing shows Tegaderm™ CHG has broad spectrum activity against, and is a barrier to, a wide variety of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and yeast, including the majority of pathogens that are of most concern to epidemiologists and infection-control practitioners. 3M™ Tegaderm™ CHG has not been studied in a randomized clinical study as to its effectiveness in preventing CR-BSIs or other percutaneous device-related infections.
Tegaderm™ CHG IV Securement Dressing combines the powerful antimicrobial protection of CHG with the simplicity of Tegaderm™ film dressings, making it easy to use.
About 3M Health Care
Since inventing Ioban™ antimicrobial incise surgical drapes more than 30 years ago, 3M has been a worldwide leader in developing health care products and services that address infection control. 3M Health Care, one of 3M抯 six major business segments, is dedicated to improving the practice, delivery and outcome of patient care and is a leading provider of solutions for medical, oral care, drug delivery and health information markets.
3M, Tegaderm and Ioban are trademarks of 3M.
*In vivo testing, in vitro testing, data on file, 3M Data on file