Regarding skin condition, this study cannot
detect the differences among the treatment groups.
The 1 week washout was not adequate to eliminate
carryover effects on skin condition. In addition, the
high number of surgical hand scrubs for each
participant is the barrier for restore the skin condition.
The scrub nurses and surgeons spent at least 4 times or
more per day (52.1%) in scrubbing their hands and
wearing gloves more than 4 hours each working day
(43.5%). This study group spent more hours in surgery
per person than the study group of Larson and team
(2001).6 In addition, the long scrub times for Method
A and B were 7- minute surgical hand scrubs following
the work instruction of the operating room. In
contrast, CDC strongly recommends that long scrubs
times are not necessary.7
The duration of surgical hand
scrubs using 3-5 minutes scrubbing showed that 3
minutes and 5 minutes surgical hand scrubs are the
same effectiveness.8
Therefore, current practice for
surgical hand scrubs that includes prolonged periods
of time needs to be reassessed.