[Pre-operative non-shaving for neurosurgical operations (author's transl)]

The authors report their pre-operative technique for scalp attendance according to which they operated on more than 1000 cranial neurosurgical patients in three years without the classical complete hair shave. Major psychological advantages are obvious. Principle technical details are: as complete cleaning of scalp-grease as possible by repeated shampoos; in the operating room: shaving only a thin pathway along the skin incision drawn by the surgeon himself, and disinfection with tincture of iodine exclusively. During the same time, they observed a fall to 0,6% of surgical infections needing bone flap removal because of osteitis. Secondary but always transitory partial alopecia has been observed in three patients.