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w Re: "Don't Flip Your Lid Over
Surgeons in Skullcaps"
(September, page 4). I personal-
ly hate the bouffant hats, but
am willing to listen to evi-
dence-based medicine — but
let's see it. Can you identify
any literature that demon-
strates that the average male
surgeon, with no facial hair,
short sideburns and reason-
ably cut hair, has a higher
infection rate because he's
wearing a skullcap?
Someone's opinion about what
might be true should not be
the basis for new standards.
That is not the scientific way.
Surgeons must operate for up to 8 to 12 hours in some cases.
Temperature and comfort are significant factors that let them do so.
At our ASC, where 5 male plastic surgeons who wear skullcaps per-
form more than 3,800 operations a year, our infection rate is less than
0.5%.
Richard J. Greco, MD
The Georgia Institute For Plastic Surgery
Savannah, Ga.
plastxdoc@aol.com
Letters & E-mail
Talk back or sound off at letters@outpatientsurgery.net
There is plenty of evidence for
and against skullcaps, but it does not
matter, if your policy doesn't allow
them. We all have to follow the rules.
Readers in a Flap Over Surgeons in Skullcaps
