Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38476545›Full record

ArticleIndian journal of anaesthesia2024

Influence of surgical scrubs outside the operation theatre on post-operative infections - A systematic review.

Hamed H Mohammed Al-Aamri, Abhijit S Nair, Khalid M Al Sawafi, Issa Al Sharji, Ahmed Al Jabri

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Indian journal of anaesthesia, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Hamed H Mohammed Al-AamriDepartment of General Surgery, Ibra Hospital, Ministry of Health-Oman, Ibra-414, Sultanate of Oman.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9480-7574
Abhijit S NairDepartment of Anesthesiology, Ibra Hospital, Ministry of Health-Oman, Ibra-414, Sultanate of Oman.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2506-0301
Khalid M Al SawafiDepartment of Hospital Administration, North Sharqiya Governorate, Ibra-414, Sultanate of Oman.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5414-5569
Issa Al SharjiDepartment of Nursing, Ibra Hospital, Ministry of Health-Oman, Ibra-414, Sultanate of Oman.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0815-5025
Ahmed Al JabriDepartment of Accident and Emergency Medicine, Ibra Hospital, Ministry of Health-Oman, Ibra-414, Sultanate of Oman.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0009-2524-8946

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background and Aims: Healthcare workers (HCWs), which include surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurses, technicians, and other non-medical staff working in the operation theatre (OT), change to surgical scrubs for providing designated services. This study was intended to investigate the association of moving in and out of OT to other hospital areas without changing scrubs and its impact on bacterial infection. Methods: After PROSPERO registration, we performed a systematic review to compare the occurrence of surgical site infections (SSIs) with or without the movement of HCWs outside OT. We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library using relevant keywords. RoB-2 and ROBINS-E tools were used to assess the risk of bias in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies, respectively. Results: We identified six articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: three RCTs and three observational studies. A risk of bias assessment revealed an overall low bias in the RCTs and an overall high bias in the observational studies. The analysis revealed a comparable incidence of bacterial infection in terms of colony-forming units when scrubs when HCWs moved in and out of OT with the same scrubs. A meta-analysis was not performed due to heterogeneity in participants and the OT set-up, as well as fewer studies and sample size. Conclusion: The evidence is insufficient to suggest that wearing scrubs outside the OT could increase the incidence of SSI in surgical patients or transmit the organisms to patients, causing infection. The present review neither supports nor is against wearing surgical scrubs outside OT premises.

Indexed as

Bacterial infectionsclothinginfection controloperating roomssurgical attiresurgical scrubsurgical site infectionssurgical wound infection

Identifiers

PMID38476545
PMCPMC10926332

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.