Incidence of wound infection in patients undergoing craniotomy: influence of type of shaving.

How the method of shaving affects the incidence of deep postoperative wound infections was examined in 475 patients. It is shown that the rate of infection is not lower after wet shaving than after dry shaving. The overall infection rate was 4.2%, 2.9% in patients who had been shaved wet versus 5.5% in patients shaved dry. The difference is, however, not significant on the 5% level. With respect to dry shaving, the infection rate was not affected by whether the hair was removed with electric clippers alone (2.8%) or whether a disposable razor was also used for additional hair removal in the area of skin incision (3.2%).