Shaveless brain surgery: safe, well tolerated, and cost effective.

Neurosurgeons perform operations every day, many of which involve the scalp. There is evidence supporting similar or decreased wound infection rates in the unshaven scalp. Patients with standard scalp incisions were assigned to either shave or shaveless preparations (n = 20). The timing of preparation and skin closure was recorded for both groups as were infectious complications. All of the patients have been followed for an average of 10 months. There were no cases of infection. The timing of scalp preparation and closure was not significantly different between the two groups (P < .05). We have previously suggested that shaving the scalp is not a critical step in the prevention of infection. We confirm that the timing of this technique is not prolonged over that of standard preparations.