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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.  

DOI

10.52573/ipmj.2021.174625

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