Chlorhexidine gluconate use to prevent hospital acquired infections—a useful tool, not a panacea

In recent years, increased awareness of the morbidity and potential mortality of hospital acquired infections (HAIs) has led to concerted prevention efforts. In addition to wanting to avert these complications for our patient’s benefit, many countries—the United States included—have taken a very rigid stance that HAIs should be, essentially, “never events”. In pursuit of this ideal, we have made tremendous progress in HAI prevention, using evidence-based “bundles” consisting of education related to insertion and removal of devices, checklists, empowerment of nursing and other care team members, protocolized use of sedatives and, as described in the article under discussion, use of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) baths (1).