Tip the Hat: Does A Superior Cloth Surgeons Cap Really Exist?
Journal Title: Surgery & Case Studies: Open Access Journal - Year 2019, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
The efficacy of operating room headwear has been in debate for several years as governing organizations, including the Joint Commission, CDC, and the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses, have published guidelines without clear evidence in support of these practices. In the 2016 edition of the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses Procedure Manual all operating room personnel are to wear disposable bouffant-style hats. Several studies have suggested that hair is a vehicle for bacterial dispersal, however, there has been no definitive evidence that connects bacteria in the hair to surgical site infections. In November, 2017 an article was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons entitled “Hats Off: A Study of Different Operating Room Headgear Assessed by Environmental Quality Indicators.” Though this study has demanded criticism by those in control of OR policy, it is not without validity. When assessing cloth skull caps, there was no difference in terms of microbial or particulate shedding compared to disposable skull caps, and lower particulate shedding compared to disposable bouffant caps. This suggests that cloth skull caps are superior to bouffant hats. In determining OR headwear an additional option exists, one that has not been so publicly scrutinized: antimicrobial cloth skull caps. To this date no studies have compared antimicrobial cloth skull caps to regular cloth skull caps. We hypothesized that antimicrobial skull caps will harbor less bacterial burden then regular cloth skull caps.
Authors and Affiliations
Jason Nealy MD, Michael Salehpour MD
Keywords
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- EP ID EP640432
- DOI 10.32474/SCSOAJ.2019.02.000135
- Views 62
- Downloads 0
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