International Surgery Journal | November 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 11 Page 3627 International Surgery Journal Omolabake BI et al. Int Surg J. 2020 Nov;7(11):3627-3632 http://www.ijsurgery.com pISSN 2349-3305 | eISSN 2349-2902 Original Research Article A comparison of postoperative wound infection rates after preoperative hair removal with razors versus clippers in a sub-urban setting Bamidele I. Omolabake 1 *, Ken N. Ozoilo 2 INTRODUCTION Surgeons have traditionally practised hair removal as part of preoperative preparation of hair bearing areas of the body and this practice still enjoys wide application. 1-4 Reasons for this practice include the facilitation of surgery, facilitation of adhesive draping and dressings, reduction of surgical site infections (SSI), reduction of pain and discomfort associated with wound dressing changes and for psychological reasons. 5-11 The methods used in hair removal include shaving with razor blades, hair-clipping with clippers and the use of depilatory creams. The present consensus appears to favour the use of clippers and depilatory creams over razors for hair removal. 12-14 However, pre-operative razor shaving is still commonly used in surgical practice in developing countries including Nigeria. 3,4,15 This may be because razor shaving is cheap, convenient, widely available, and easily accessible. The process is fast, does not require any ABSTRACT Background: Preoperative hair removal from hair bearing areas is widely practised. Razors are widely used in poor resource settings despite concerns that they may be associated with surgical wound infection. In contrast, clippers are not commonly used in this setting because they are expensive. Objective was to compare effectiveness of depilation, cost and wound infection rates following the use of razors and clippers in preoperative hair removal in clean surgical operations in a resource-poor setting. Methods: A randomized controlled study was carried out over 1 year. Surgeries were randomized into two groups who had preoperative hair removal using razors and clippers respectively. The participants were then monitored postoperatively for wound infection. Results: Seventy-nine operative sites were assigned to each group. Seventy-six (96%) and 65 (82%) operative sites in the razor-shaved and hair-clipped group respectively had complete hair removal (p=0.005). Twenty-three (29%) and 4 (5%) operative sites in the razor-shaved and hair-clipped group respectively had some degree of skin injury (p=0.000). The total rate of wound infection was 5.7%, however, 7 (8.9%) and 2 (2.5%) operative sites in the razor- shaved and hair-clipped groups respectively were infected (p=0.167). The mean cost incurred in the razor-shaved and hair-clipped group was approximately N 587±1,644.60 and N 1,272±883.46 respectively (p=0.001). Conclusions: Though razors provided more effective depilation, they caused more surface abrasions and were associated with more wound infections, though not statistically significant. Clippers are however associated with greater cost and this could be a major constraint where resources are limited. Keywords: Clean surgical operations, Clippers, Razors, Wound infection 1 Department of Surgery, College of Health Sciences, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria 2 Department of Surgery, College of Health Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria Received: 15 August 2020 Revised: 02 October 2020 Accepted: 05 October 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Bamidele I. Omolabake, E-mail: obamidele@bsum.edu.ng Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20204662