| The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if the use of a 70% ethanol alcohol hand sanitizer alters the duration, size of the lesion, level of pain upon administering treatment, and overall daily discomfort during outbreak. This study was a double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) using 70% ethanol alcohol hand sanitizer for the experiment and medical grade mineral oil for the control group. The experiment and the control were dispensed in lip gloss containers for application. Descriptive statistics and the independent sample t-test were used to analyze data (p=0.05). A total of 20 individuals completed the research study: 10 in the experimental group and 10 in the control group. There was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of duration, size of lesions, pain, and discomfort; therefore, the null hypothesis was not rejected. |