A 40-year-old male hernia patient with a very hairy chest
and abdomen sits in pre-op. The day's schedule is packed
and you're under significant pressure to move the patient to
the OR. What should you do?
a. clip the hair around the surgical site in the OR
b. clip the hair around the surgical site in pre-op
c. shave the hair around the surgical site in the OR
d. hair removal is not needed in this case
Answer: b
In this case, you make the judgment call that the patient's body hair
will interfere with the surgeon's access during surgery or the proper
marking of the surgical site and should be removed. Hair that's deter-
mined to not be an impediment should be left untouched, because
hair removal of any kind can cause minute skin abrasions that
increase the risk of infection. Whenever possible, remove hair in the
pre-op holding area with single-use surgical clippers or depilatory
cream. In this case, a time crunch is no excuse to resort to removing
the patient's hair in the OR. Don't shave because razor blades cause
microscopic nicks that increase the risk of a surgical site infection.
Instruct patients not to remove hair at home before surgery.
Only remove hair in the OR if a patient's modesty or privacy is jeop-
ardized when the surgical site is on or near sensitive areas of anato-
my, says Ms. Wright. In those instances, she suggests you clip the hair
once the patient is anesthetized and do your best to remove the clip-
pings from the surgical field with sticky-fingered gloves or tape.
A patient who's scheduled to undergo a knee arthroscopy
should wash the surgical site with CHG the night before.
a. true b. false
4 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
