Surgical hand rubbing (SHR) and surgical hand scrubbing (SHS) are two common methods used by surgeons to reduce surgical site infections.

A new study published in Injury entailed a comprehensive statistical analysis to compare the efficacy of SHR and SHS in effectively controlling surgical site infections.

This systemic review and meta-analysis was performed by mining literature from major databases, including Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library, Ovid and Google Scholar, by selecting studies published between 1980 and 1st April 2019. The analysis focused on primary outcomes that included colony-forming unit (CFU) counts and logarithmic reduction of CFU after hand antisepsis and after surgery.

Overall, seven clinical trials were selected with a total of 764 healthcare workers analyzed. The results showed no statistically significant differences between the two methods—SHR and SHS—with regards to CFU counts and logarithmic reduction of CFU after hand antisepsis and surgery, as well as antisepsis and surgery times.

From the findings, it was inferred that SHR was equally efficacious as SHS, without necessarily increasing costs. Owing to advantages such as ease of application, exposure to less dermal irritation, and less time consumption, SHR is recommended as a cost-effective alternative for management of surgical site infections.

Source: Injury. 2020 Jun;51(6):1250-1257. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2020.03.007.