Surgical Site Infection (SSI) can be a devastating complication, leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Pre-surgical hand preparation is an effective strategy to prevent SSI. The two most common pre-surgical hand preparation methods are antimicrobial soap for surgical hand scrub and alcohol-based surgical hand rub. The antimicrobial soap hand scrub remains more commonly used among operating theater staff. However, several studies showed that alcohol-based hand rubs are much more effective than antiseptic soap hand scrubs.

This study aimed to compare the effect of the two methods of surgical hand preparation on the number of bacterial colonies.

The design of this study was a comparative study with a pre-test and post-test approach in two groups (a surgical hand scrub using 4% chlorhexidine soap group and a surgical hand rub using 70% ethyl alcohol and 2.5% chlorhexidine group). Hand smear sampling was performed before surgical hand preparation (pre-test), immediately after surgical hand preparation (post-test 1), and after the surgery was completed (post-test 2). Seventy-one hand smear samples (35 samples applied the surgical hand rub, and 36 samples applied the surgical hand scrub) were divided into two groups and examined for colony counts in Colony Forming Units (CFU) using the total plate count method. Descriptive and comparative analysis were applied.

The surgical hand-scrub group had average pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2 colony counts of 0.202 CFU/cm², 0.007 CFU/cm², and 0.016 CFU/cm², respectively, while the surgical hand-rub group had average pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2 colony counts of 0.163 CFU/cm², 0.001 CFU/cm², and 0.001 CFU/cm² respectively. Statistical analysis using the Friedman test showed that both methods significantly reduced the number of colonies (p < 0.01). Based on the Mann–Whitney test, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the number of colonies (p > 0.05).

Surgical hand-scrub and hand-rub have similar effectiveness in reducing and maintaining the number of colonies on hands during surgery, both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.