The Comparison of Three Scrubbing up Methods in Decreasing the Hands’ Microbial Contamination of the Operating Room’s Team (Kermanshah, 1999)

Background & Objective: The correct scrubbing up is one of the most effective methods in preventing the infection transmisson.The fact is that no specific length of time as a routine scrubbing up has been recommended ;but various length of times have been cited.Therefore, this study is aimed  to compare the microbial contamination of the operation room’s team done in educational and clinical centers of Kermanshah university of Medical Sciences in 1999.

Materials & Methods :This is an experimental study which was performed in two phases and on twenty members of the operation room.They were chosen clustered or randomly. After selecting the subjects, the classification of scrubbing length of times has been explained to each of them. Then before washing their hands for the operation, the bacterial samples were taken from their hands. For the next three operations they were asked to do two, four, and six minute scrubbing with at least 18 hours intervals. After each scrubbing up bacterial samples were collected and sent to the lab. The bacterial colonies and the type of microorganisms were numbered and distinguished. In analyzing the findings the descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests were used.

Results: The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed no significant differences among these three time methods of scrubbing (p=0/420). The study of Gram Negative Bacilli revealed that the two minute method is not able to destroy these bacilli which are as common hand infections in hospitals. On the other hand, six minute scrub seems too long. There were significant differences among the medians of colony numbers before and after scrubbing up(P<0.005) and the six minute scrubbing up method seems to be longes than four minute one.

Discussion:This study showed that the four minute scrubbing up method is the most appropriate method for decreasing the hand contamination and hospital infections. More studies are recommended for finding an appropriate method and effective solution for scrubbing up.