The effect of temperature on bacterial growth in the presence of nonsterile ultrasound coupling gel.
Abstract
Warming ultrasound coupling gel for patient comfort is common clinical practice. Guidelines for safe gel use recommend using only dry heat for warming gel.1 Gel’s effect on bacterial growth is unclear.2e4 The effect of temperature on bacterial growth in the presence of nonsterile gel is unknown. Therefore, we performed a preliminary in vitro study to test the null hypothesis that warming ultrasound gel with dry heat does not promote bacterial growth.
This paper has been withdrawn.
