Preoperative Surgical Site Hair Removal for Elective Abdominal Surgery: Does It Have Impact on Surgical Site Infection.

Introduction Postoperative surgical site infection (SSI) forms the major burden of nosocomial infections in surgical patients. There is prevalent practice of surgical site hair shaving as a part of preoperative preparation. There is uncertainty regarding the benefit versus harm of shaving for SSIs. Hairs at surgical sites are removed prior to surgery most often by shaving. We performed this study to look for what impact preoperative hair removal by shaving has on postoperative SSI. Methods We performed prospective comparative cohort study in patients undergoing elective abdominal surgeries. We included clean and clean-contaminated surgeries in immunocompetent patients of which half were shaved and other half not shaved prior to surgery. Other confounding factors like skin cleaning, aseptic technique of surgery, antibiotic prophylaxis and treatment, and postoperative wound care were as per care. Patients were assessed for presence and grade of SSI postoperatively on day 7, 14, and 30. Results were analyzed statistically using chi-square and Fischer's exact tests for significance in entire sample as well as in demographic subgroups. Results Overall SSI rate was 11.42%. There was no statistically significant difference in SSI rates between patients who underwent preoperative surgical site hair removal by shaving (232) and who did not have shaving (232) on all the three different assessment timelines in postoperative period, namely, day 7, 14, and 30. Although the absolute number of patients who had SSI was more in those who underwent preoperative surgical site hair removal by shaving, the difference was not statistically significant ( p > 0.05). But on subgroup analysis patients with clean-contaminated surgeries ( p = 0.037) and patients with surgeries lasting for less than 2 hours (Fischer's exact = 0.034) had significantly higher SSI in the shaved group compared with unshaved on day 14. Conclusion As per our results, preoperative shaving did not significantly increase overall SSI except in subgroup of clean-contaminated surgeries and in surgeries of less than 2 hours' duration. So especially in these patients avoiding preoperative surgical site hair shaving may be used as one of the infection control measures.

The effects of different types of hair shaving on the body image and surgical site infection in elective cranial surgery.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of different types of shaving on body image and surgical site infection in elective cranial surgery. BACKGROUND: Hair shaving before cranial surgery is commonly performed in many countries. However, the impact of shaving on the patients' body image and surgical site infection is not, as yet, well investigated. DESIGN: A randomised-controlled design was used in this study. METHODS: The sample comprised 200 patients who underwent elective cranial surgery between March 2013-August 2014. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention criteria were applied for the preoperative preparation of patients and for the follow-up of surgical site infection. Wound swab cultures were obtained four times from all patients. The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale was used to assess changes in the body image of patients. FINDINGS: The rate of surgical site infection was 1% for each group and for all patients. There was no difference between the groups of surgical site infection. Coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus epidermidis were mostly isolated in the swab cultures. The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale score decreased in patients who underwent strip shaving and increased in patients with regional shaving. CONCLUSION: There is no difference between strip shaving and regional shaving in the development of surgical site infection after cranial surgery. In addition, regional hair shaving negatively affects the patients' body image. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Findings of this study provide useful evidence-based information for healthcare professionals. The development and implementation of effective interventions result in the prevention of surgical site infection and improvement of the patients' body image in elective cranial surgery.

Bacteriological Comparison Between Shaving and No-Shaving Before Knee Arthroscopy Surgery / 中华医院感染学杂志

OBJECTIVE To study the feasibility of no-hair-shaving before knee arthroscopy surgery.METHODS Totally 160 patients preparing for knee arthroscopy surgery were divided into both test and control groups randomly.The test group was no-hair-shaving before operation,and the control group was hair-shaving the day before their operation.Patients of the test group washed their skin with soap water or bathed at the operation day and patients in control group did this the day before operation.Bacterial culture was done in the operative site both before and after sterilization,and observed whether infection occurred in the incision after operation.RESULTS Bacterial culture in skin before sterilization was statistical significance between the two groups and no statistical significance after sterilization.All the incision healed well and no infection was found.CONCLUSIONS No-hair-shaving preoperatively can decrease patients′ discomfort and reduce colonies on skin surface effectively.The method is easy and safety manipulated.