Nasal Swabstick Supports Antibiotic Stewardship

A new nasal healthcare kit helps protect patients against surgical site infections (SSIs) and other hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

The PDI Healthcare (Orangeburg, NY, USA) Profend Nasal Decolonization Kit is a clinician-applied swabstick that simplifies the decolonization process, reducing treatment time to a quick 60 seconds. While the dry-handle design minimizes grime, the small nasal swab offers easy application and enhanced comfort for patients. Each kit includes four pre-saturated swabs containing 0.75 ml of a 10% povidone-iodine solution, a broad-spectrum antiseptic proven effective against S. aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), with no known pathogen resistance.


Nasal decolonization is an under-utilized method of infection control, since hand-to-nose contact occurs about every four minutes on average, often compromising hand hygiene and risking contamination; in fact, 80% of SSI pathogens can be tracked to the patient’s own nose. Studies show that infection control protocols which include nasal decolonization can reduced such infections by 44%, and in a clinical in-vivo study of healthy volunteers, Profend nasal swabsticks reduced S. aureus by 99.7% at one hour and 99.9% at 12 hours.

“Hospital acquired and surgical site infections are an increasingly complex and dynamic threat to the health of patients,” said Elise Tordella, vice president of marketing at PDI Healthcare. “Our response to this evolving hazard, the Profend Nasal Decolonization Kit, has been met with a positive clinical response as 90% of surveyed clinicians expressed a preference for it over other nasal PVP-iodine products.”

S. aureus (including MRSA) colonization of the nose is an endemic risk factor for infectious diseases such as bacteraemia and skin and soft tissue infections in many patient populations. In fact, most infections with S. aureus are caused by the patient's own bacteria, with autoinfection rates ranging between 76% and 86%. The density at which the anterior nares are colonized may be a further risk factor, with a 3-fold increase in SSIs reported in surgical patients with high concentrations of nasal S. aureus. Nasal decolonization is especially recommended in carriers of MRSA who are receiving antibiotic prophylaxis.