Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 August 2006
Background and objective: The intravenous anaesthetic propofol may become contaminated once the ampoules have been opened. The effect of lidocaine and cooling was tested on the bacterial contamination of propofol.
Methods: The study was performed in two parts. In Part 1, 1920 aliquots of propofol alone, and of a propofol-lidocaine mixture, were drawn into sterile syringes and stored at room temperature (24–26°C) or in the refrigerator (12–14°C). In Part 2, 1200 aliquots from opened ampoules of propofol alone, or as a propofol-lidocaine mixture, were stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Samples were aerobically cultured at 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 h.
Results: In Part 1, diphtheroid bacillus was isolated from one aliquot (0.06%). In Part 2, there was bacterial growth in both groups; the number of contaminated ampoules increased with time and it was 20–26% at 12 h. Diphtheroid bacilli and coagulase-negative staphylococci were the most frequent micro-organisms.
Conclusions: When propofol is stored in opened ampoules, the bacterial contamination rate is high. Adding lidocaine, or storing opened ampoules at 12–14°C, does not affect the contamination rate, except during the first few hours. It is advisable to draw propofol aseptically into a syringe in an amount that can be used during one procedure.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.