Preoperative hair removal--a systematic literature review.

This article describes a systematic literature review on whether, how, and when to perform preoperative hair removal. By searching electronic databases and reference lists of relevant articles, team members identified 20 clinical studies that deal with preoperative hair removal. No strong evidence was found to advocate against preoperative hair removal. Furthermore, there was strong evidence to recommend that when hair removal is considered necessary, shaving should not be performed. Instead a depilatory or electric clipping, preferably immediately before surgery, should be used.