Why carry out this study?

Preoperative prophylaxis is essential to minimizing surgery-related infections and can be achieved with a new class of antiseptic compounds that showed effects against bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses.

Newly introduced formulations with lower concentration of povidone–iodine or chlorhexidine are used in the preoperative days to reduce the conjunctival bacterial load.

In vitro/vivo studies are assessing the efficacy of new compounds, including PHMB, picloxydine, ozone, hypochlorous acid, and Biosecur.

A correct risk management protocol for infection prophylaxis may reduce healthcare-acquired infections and the related medical–legal disputes.

What was learned from the study?

Prophylaxis of infection represents a crucial step of intraocular surgery. Povidone–iodine is a compound well studied in the literature, and it is broadly used even if at different concentrations. Chlorhexidine is becoming more used as published studies demonstrate good safety and efficacy profiles with reduced patient discomfort. Moreover, there are new compounds such as picloxydine, ozone, hypochlorous acid, and Biosecur that showed very interesting preliminary results.