Patients can shower 48-hours after surgery reveals new study

Afraid of potential infection, doctors usually advise against patients getting wounds wet until stitches are removed, which can take many days, or even weeks. Recently, researchers permitted some patients with relatively low-risk surgical wounds to shower 48 hours after their operations, with encouraging results.

For the study, Dr. Jin-Shing Chen of National Taiwan University Hospital and colleagues focused on patients with relatively low-risk , clean wounds, which are uninfected but involve more complex operations such as chest, ear or gynecologic procedures. 

People with infections, inflammation or injuries caused by outside objects like bullet or knives entering the body were excluded form the study 

The research was conducted on 444 patients having surgeries on the thyroid, lung, face, extremities and certain abdominal hernias. Half the participants could shower 48 hours after the operations, while the rest of them had to wait. Within two weeks, four patients in the shower group and six in the unwashed group developed superficial surgical site infections with redness and swelling.

All the patients reported similar levels of pain after surgery, but the ones who got to shower were more satisfied with their care.

The fact that doctors knew which patients had showered probably influenced outcomes, said experts. Additionally, there was no long term observation for infections, only the two weeks. Patients who showered did not use soap or cleansers at the wound site