WET WOUNDS Some of your patients may be able to shower 48 hours after surgery without increasing their risk of infection, a study suggests.

Do you instruct your patients to wait days, or even weeks, after undergoing surgery to take a shower for fear of contaminating the wound? That practice may soon become outdated, according to a new study.

Patients with relatively low-risk surgical wounds who showered 48 hours after their operations faced a similar risk of infection as their unwashed peers, according to a new study from the National Taiwan University Hospital. Patients who showered were also happier with their overall care.

For the study, researchers looked at 444 patients with "clean" and "clean-contaminated" wounds — those without infection following minimally invasive operations, and those that were uninfected but involved more complex procedures, respectively — and had half of the group shower 48 hours after surgery and the other half wait. The patients underwent surgery on the thyroid, lung, face, extremities and certain abdominal hernias.

Within 2 weeks, 4 patients in the shower group and 6 patients in the unwashed group developed superficial surgical site infections, an insignificant difference between the groups, researchers say. Additionally, while all patients reported similar levels of pain, the ones who showered said they were more satisfied with their care.

Heather Evans, MD, MS, FACS, an infectious disease and surgery researcher at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, didn't work on the study, but told Reuters that while she appreciated the research, there are several key factors that allow for safe showering 48 hours post-op, including the use of only water to clean the wound.

She continued: "I think the take-home message for patients from this particular study is that showering with water within 48 hours after elective surgery is safe if the surgical wound is small, had minimal contamination and was primarily closed with (stitches)."

Kendal Gapinski