Pre-operative shaving and wound infection in appendectomy

The study on the effects of shaving the skin on wound infections after appendectomy was done in 80 patients in 1988 in Siriraj Hospital. Patients were divided randomly into two groups, 40 patients each, a control and an experiment group. The control group had their skin shaved and the experiment group did not. Data showed no difference in: demography, preoperative admission time, interval between skin preparation and surgery, thickness of subcutaneous tissue, operating time, and suture materials. Shaving of the skin resulted in no alteration in bacteria found on the skin, on the walls of the wound before closing. Stitch abscesses were the only wound infection found in 3 patients in each group. It is concluded that skin shaving, though it did not increase wound infection rate, had no beneficial effect on wound infection in appendectomy.