Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The study hypothesis was that irrigation with tap water is as efficacious as irrigation with sterile saline in removing bacteria from simple lacerations in preparation for wound closure. ⋯ In this animal model, bacterial decontamination of simple lacerations was not compromised, and was actually improved using tap water irrigation. This is most likely due to the mechanical differences in the types of irrigation. In certain instances, such as with upper-extremity lacerations, tap water irrigation would likely be cheaper and less labor-intensive than irrigation with normal saline from a syringe.