(1) Persistent antimicrobial activity, measured in hours, helps decrease rebound microbial growth after surgical hand antisepsis .(2) Semmelweis, for instance, is associated with 1847, the year when he introduced antisepsis by chlorine washings to prevent puerperal fever.(3) Although this study found an increase in hand antisepsis initially, it is unknown if compliance with hand antisepsis will continue.(4) Surgical hand antisepsis with an antimicrobial soap or an alcohol-based hand rub with persistent activity is recommended before donning sterile gloves.(5) Wooden operating theaters were created to accommodate hordes of students who learned by watching professors perform surgery, and Joseph Lister's ideas about antisepsis added to the importance of these arenas.(6) Surgical hand antisepsis / hand rub with an FDA-compliant, alcohol-based surgical hand rub product should follow a standardized application according to the manufacturer's written directions for use.(7) The term surgical hand antisepsis refers to the antiseptic surgical scrub or antiseptic hand rub performed before donning sterile attire preoperatively.(8) These agents were suggested and used by health care workers in areas where soap and water were not readily available and patient contact was frequent, necessitating hand antisepsis between patients.(9) Levels of cleaning can be divided into the following categories: sterilization, disinfection, cleaning and antisepsis .(10) Use of antimicrobial soaps and lengthy scrubs required by presurgical hand antisepsis protocols may put perioperative nurses at high risk of developing hand irritation.(11) Traditional surgical hand antisepsis has involved using a brush, water, and antimicrobial soap.(12) The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee provides an in-depth review and guideline for hand antisepsis in healthcare settings.(13) In the field of medicine, physicians were familiar with Louis Pasteur's germ theory and knew of Joseph Lister's discoveries in the fields of bacteriology and antisepsis .(14) Candidate antisepsis therapies have included agents that target host cell activation, mediators of the inflammatory response, agents that boost the immune response, and prostaglandin inhibitors.(15) If an alcohol-based, hand rub product is chosen for surgical hand antisepsis , the hands and arms should be prewashed and dried before application of the hand rub product because alcohol-based hand rub products do not remove soil.(16) In addition to assessing participants' tolerance of the two protocols and compliance with hand antisepsis , surgical site infection rates were calculated 30 days after the procedures.
