Introduction:

Surgical hand scrubbing is indispensable to prevent postoperative infection at the intervention site, a problem both current and in progress.

Objective:

Determine the most effective surgical hand scrubbing technique against bacterial flora among surgery students.

Methods:

A controlled randomized study was conducted of non-pharmacological treatments. Twelve surgery students were selected from the School of Dentistry at the University of San Martín de Porres who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The students were divided into two groups and assigned one of two surgical hand scrubbing techniques: Group A: one-step technique and Group B: traditional technique (three steps). Both techniques used bar soap and a brush.

Results:

In the culture medium mannitol salt agar, the traditional technique obtained a median of 52 000 CFU/mL, with a minimum 10 000 CFU/mL and a maximum 56 800 CFU/mL, whereas the one-step technique obtained a median of 19 600 CFU/mL, with a minimum of 4 400 CFU/mL and a maximum of 38 000 CFU/mL (p= 0.117). In MacConkey agar, the traditional technique obtained a median of 300 UFC/mL, with a minimum of 0 CFU/mL and a maximum of 18 000 CFU/mL, whereas the one-step technique obtained 0 UFC/mL (p= 0.054).

Conclusions:

No statistically significant differences were found in the groups.

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