Impact of the Time and Method of Preoperative Hair Removal on Surgical Site Infection in Lower Abdominal Surgery
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- Category: Vol. 77, December 2009
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Impact of the Time and Method of Preoperative Hair Removal on Surgical Site Infection in Lower Abdominal Surgery,WAFAA I. SHEREIF and AMIRA A. HASSANIN
Abstract
Surgical site infections are common and serious postop-erative complications. Hair removal may or may not reduce surgical site infection, but certainly may increase infection rates if not done properly. The aim of this study was to identify impact of the time and method of preoperative hair removal on surgical site infection in lower abdominal surgery. This quasi-experimental study was conducted in the surgical de-partment at El-Mansoura University main Hospital on a convenience sample of 152 lower abdominal surgical patients equally divided into 3 groups (G1) hair shaving by razor at the night before surgery, (G2) shaving by razor immediately before surgery inside the operating room and (G3) shaving by clipper immediately before surgery inside the operating room. An assessment tool was used to collect data pre and postoperatively. Data were collected throughout nine months and the results showed that all patients in the 3 groups had prophylactic antibiotics and the majority complied with its intake. After one week, (G1) had significantly higher percent-ages of wound sepsis (51.0%), systemic symptoms and signs (84.3%) and abnormally high ESR (54.9%) and WBC count (60.8%) and 11.8% of the patients in this group had positive incision culture, compared to none in the other two groups. (G3) patients were lowest in almost all abnormal outcomes, and highest in healing (86.0%). After 2 weeks, G1 patients still had the highest percentages of wound sepsis (37.3%), systemic symptoms and signs (43.1%) and abnormally high ESR (35.3%) and WBC count (56.9%) and 9.8% had positive incision culture, compared with 3.9 in (G2) and none in (G3). The study findings confirm the superiority clipping in pre-operative hair removal, compared with shaving and of per-forming the process immediately before surgery. Thus, clipping just before surgery is recommended. Further study is suggested to compare the incidence of surgical site infections in clipping versus non-removal of hair.