Patient skin preparation for surgery.

Skin preparation of the patient begins before arriving to the operating room; its purpose is to reduce the risk of post operative wound infection. The objective of this study was to assess the skin preparation for surgical procedures in 3 different hospitals of the General Organization for Teaching Hospitals & Institutes (GOTHI) and to determine their conformity to the existing protocol and make comparisons between them in their performance. A prospective study using the audit was done for 1 month, nearly for the same period in each of the 3 hospitals (A,B,C) to observe the skin preparation practices considering showering, hair removal and the 5 steps of patient skin preparation on table in the operating room.