Author(s)

Takami Nakao¹, Atsushi Nitta², Hiroshi Nishioka², Munehiro Katagi², Noriko Tsuda³, Yasuhide Kitazawa¹

¹Critical Care Medical Center, Kindai University Nara Hospital, Ikoma City, Japan.
²Forensic Science Laboratory, Osaka Prefectural Police Quarters, Osaka, Japan.
³Critical Care Medical Center, Kindai University Hospital, Osaka-Sayama City, Japan.

This study was aimed to establish whether the skin preparation using ethanol-containing skin antiseptics causes ethanol contamination through blood collection. Venous blood was collected from 40 healthy volunteers according to the national guidelines for blood sampling, with four sequential procedures as follows: 1) collecting blood immediately (within 5 seconds) after cleaning the skin with an individually packaged type of ethanol-containing wipe, 2) collecting blood 1 minute after cleaning the skin with an individually packaged type of ethanol-containing wipe, 3) collecting immediately (within 5 seconds) after cleaning the skin with a traditional cleaning method (thoroughly ethanol-impregnated wipe, and 4) collecting 1 minute after cleaning the skin with a traditional cleaning method. Each sequential procedure was performed with and without the ethanol-containing wipe used for skin cleaning on the puncture site on their right and left arms at the time the needle was withdrawn, respectively. The collected specimens were subjected to the determination of ethanol by using headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In every 80 blood specimens obtained from 40 participants, ethanol was undetectable (<0.001 mg/mL). This study demonstrates that disinfection using ethanol-containing skin antiseptics is unlikely to cause ethanol contamination through blood collection regardless of skin preparation technique according to the guidelines for blood sampling. This may have implications in forensic science.

Blood Alcohol Content, Skin Antiseptic, Contamination of Ethanol

Nakao, T. , Nitta, A. , Nishioka, H. , Katagi, M. , Tsuda, N. and Kitazawa, Y. (2021) To Investigate the Effect of Using Ethanol Containing Wipes in Collecting Blood for the Measurement of Alcohol Concentration. Pharmacology & Pharmacy, 12, 208-218. doi: 10.4236/pp.2021.1210018.