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R E S E A R C H
R O U N D U P
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews featured a survey of 14 hair removal studies of various types. Reviewers from De Montfort University and University Hospitals Leicester in England found that SSI rates were higher after patients were shaved with razors than they were after clippers were used (tinyurl.com/qjrhdy5).
They didn't see much of a difference in SSIs, though, between patients who underwent hair removal and those who didn't; between those whose hair was removed the day of surgery and those for whom it was removed the day before; or between those shaved with razors and those who used depilatory cream; although they note that many of the studies they reviewed were based on small samples. They found no studies comparing SSI rates after clippers versus depilatory creams, or when hair was removed in different clinical settings. OSM
E-mail dbernard@outpatientsurgery.net.
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DAROUICHE STUDY
Chlorhexidine-Alcohol Wins Face-Off vs. Povidone-Iodine
In a 4-year-old landmark study, chlorhexidine-alcohol outperformed povidone-iodine in preventing surgical site infections in a head-to-head comparison led by Rabih O. Darouiche, MD, professor in the center for
prostheses infection at
Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Researchers prepped 409 patients with chlorhexidine-alcohol scrub and 440 patients with povidone-iodine scrub before clean-contaminated surgeries. The application of chlorhexidine-alcohol reduced the SSI risk by 41%, compared with povidone-iodine, at 30 days
post-op, according to the
study, which appears in the Jan. 7, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (tinyurl.com/3alrol3).
SUPERIOR PROTECTION
Chlorhexidine-alcohol did a better job of preventing surgical site infections than povidoneiodine in one landmark study.
