Pseudobacteremia Attributed to Contamination of Povidone-Iodine with Pseudomonas cepacia

Abstract

P. cepacia was recovered from the blood cultures of 52 patients in 4 hospitals in New York, USA, over 7 mo. from April-Oct. 1980. Epidemiologic investigation in 1 hospital indicated that the positive results of blood culture represented pseudobacteremias and implicated a 10% povidone-I solution (Pharmadine) used as an antiseptic and disinfectant as the source of contamination. Physicians who drew blood cultures positive for P. cepacia were more likely to have left povidone-I on the skin before venipuncture (P = 0.026) and were more likely to have applied povidine-I to the blood culture bottle tops and to have left it there while inoculating the blood culture media (P = 0.007) than those who drew cultures negative for P. cepacia. Direct inoculation of Pharmadine into brain-heart infusion broth yielded P. cepacia; 2 wk after the first cultures, the same Pharmadine bottles were culture negative. The I concentrations of the contaminated Pharmadine solutions were similar to those of 10% povidone-I solutions distributed by other manufacturers.