Abdullah-el-muttaqi, Farah Naz Farid, Sunil Sadruddin Samnani, Syed Maaz Salahuddin.
Timings of pre-operative hair removal using surgical clipper and it’s impact on wound infection.
Pak J Surg Jan ;30(3):227-30.

Objectives: To evaluate impact of hair removal done a day before surgery or on the operating table just 30 minutes before incision with the clipper on reducing infection rate at our institute. Study Design: Randomized control trial Sett ing and Duration: Department of Surgery of a Tertiary Care Hospital of Karachi from October 2013 to March 2014. Methodology: In total 157 patients were recruited in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group I participants were those who had hair removal a day before surgery and Group II includes those who had hair removal just before the surgery. To grade wound infections a Southampton wound infection grading system was used. Results: Analysis revealed no signifi cant diff erence in age (P=0.7), Body Mass Index (BMI) (P=0.5), education level (P=0.9), and duration of surgery (P=0.8) between both groups. However, signifi cant diff erence was identifi ed in job status (P=0.01) between both groups. Irrespective of antibiotic use (P=0.6) in both groups, signifi cant diff erence was noted in wound sepsis (P=0.029). Patients in Group I presented with Grade I (7.7%), Grade II (7.7%), Grade III (1.3%), and Grade IV (1.3%). However, patients in Group II presented with Grade I (5.1%) and Grade II (1.3%) of Southampton Grading. Conclusion: Hence, clipping done just before surgery had low risk of infection as compared to those who had one day before surgery.

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