Cesarean delivery is one of the most common surgical procedures in obstetric practice and its incidence is rising worldwide. The caesarean section rate is 21.5% in UK and 29.5% in USA. In Egypt, the past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in the CS rate of 52 %.
Post cesarean section (CS) infectious morbidity is a major health problem, which can lead to maternal health morbidities in addition to economic burden. Endometritis, febrile morbidity and wound infection are considered of the most frequent complications of post cesarean infections. Endometritis is the commonest complication as it accounts up to 27%, followed by clinically significant fever, which was reported as 5–24%, while the incidence of wound infection is about 2–9%. This complication, up to 10 times more frequent after a cesarean delivery than after vaginal delivery.
Post‐cesarean endometritis and infectious morbidity are the result often of the presence of bacteria in the vagina and cervix that move higher in the genital tract to infect the uterus. These bacteria have been shown to be responsible for failure of antibiotic prophylaxis during cesarean deliveries.
Various studies have been done to evaluate whether vaginal cleaning before a cesarean delivery with an antiseptic solution can reduce the incidence of postoperative infection. Povidone iodine use has been reported in many studies for this purpose.