Surgical scrubbing with and without a brush in decreasing the number of germ colonies on hands: A Systematic review

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study aims to compare surgical scrubbing with and without a brush in decreasing the number of germ colonies on hands.@*Background@#Surgical scrubbing with and without a brush are currently popular worldwide. To date, the optimal method in decreasing the number of germ colonies on the hands is not known.@*Methods@#Systematic review of effectiveness was conducted. The databases and publisher websites included PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Wiley Online Library, Cochrane Library and recruitment studies published between 2009-2019. The risk of bias was assessed utilizing Cochrane Collaboration's tool.@*Results@#Included clinical studies consisting of five randomized controlled trials. The procedures and duration of surgical scrubbing on each study varied depending on the protocol as a reference. All clinical studies found no difference in the number of colonyforming units (CFU) on the hand between surgical scrubbing with and without a brush.@*Conclusions@#Scrubbing with and without a brush showed similar efficacy in terms of the number of germ colonies on the hands.