Extensive pre-operative shaving: a costly exercise

Area of Science:

• Surgical Infection Prevention
• Patient Safety in Surgery

Background:

• Pre-operative shaving is a common practice to prepare patients for surgery.
• The impact of pre-operative shaving on surgical wound infection rates requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of pre-operative shaving on clean surgical wound infection rates.
• To determine if routine pre-operative shaving provides any advantage in reducing post-operative infections.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study analyzing wound infection rates in patients undergoing general surgery.
• Infection rates were compared between periods with and without routine pre-operative shaving.
• Matched patient groups under similar nursing conditions were used for comparison.

Main Results:

• Clean wound infection rate was 2.9% with pre-operative shaving and 1.5% without shaving.
• Infection rates for other surgeons' patients were 2.7% (with shaving) and 1.3% (without shaving).
• Lower infection rates were observed when pre-operative shaving was not performed.

Conclusions:

• Pre-operative shaving does not demonstrate an advantage in reducing clean operation wound infection rates.
• The findings suggest that eliminating pre-operative shaving may be associated with lower infection rates.
• Further research may be warranted to confirm these findings and refine pre-operative protocols.