Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Spine surgeons ordinarily shave the skin of the surgery locality before operation start. Nevertheless, data from some surgical series proposes that preoperative shaving may enhance the post-surgical infection incidence.
OBJECTIVE:
To conclude whether shaving the surgical site before lumbar spine surgery induces infection in the post-operative period and whether presurgical shaving is compulsory.
METHODS:
A prospective cohort study had conducted over two years at the Department of neurosurgery, Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq, starting from July 2018. A total of 186 patients scheduled to undergo spinal surgery were randomly allocated into 2 groups: those in whom the site of operation was shaved immediately before surgery (shaved group; 90 patients) and the patients in whom presurgical shaving was not performed (unshaved group; 93 patients). The mean duration of anesthesia and the infection rates in both groups were recorded and compared.
RESULTS:
The span of anesthesia did not deviate in the two assemblies (P > .05). Postoperative infection occurred in 9 patients in blade shaved group, 4 of them underwent Lumbar disc surgery (P < .01).
CONCLUSION:
The shaving of the incision site immediately before lumbar spinal surgery using blade may increase the rate of post-operative infection.
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