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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Surg.
Sec. Vascular Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1395681

The effectiveness of waxing or epilation compared to conventional methods of hair removal in reducing the incidence of surgical site infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Joseph Cutteridge Joseph Cutteridge 1,2*Pierre Garrido Pierre Garrido 3Tim Staniland Tim Staniland 4Arthur Lim Arthur Lim 2Joshua Totty Joshua Totty 5Ross Lathan Ross Lathan 2,5George Smith George Smith 2,5Ian Chetter Ian Chetter 2,6
  • 1 Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of York, Heslington, United Kingdom
  • 2 Academic Vascular Surgical Unit, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Hull, United Kingdom
  • 3 East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom
  • 4 Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Hull, United Kingdom
  • 5 Clinical Sciences Centre, Hull York Medical School, Hull, England, United Kingdom
  • 6 Hull York Medical School, Hull, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) pose a significant challenge to healthcare systems by elevating patient morbidity and mortality and driving up financial costs. Preoperative skin preparation is crucial for preventing SSIs; however, certain traditional methods of hair removal have been found to increase the risk of SSI development. Mechanical epilation and waxing constitute two relatively explored methods of hair removal, which may hold potential to accelerate wound healing due to the activation of stem cells within hair follicles. This review assesses the efficacy of preoperative hair removal via waxing and mechanical epilation in reducing SSI incidence. Methods: This systematic review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (ref: CRD42023423798) and a protocol previously published in a peer-reviewed journal. All findings are reported according to PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive search of Medline, Embase, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov and CINAHL. Inclusion criteria encompassed adult patients undergoing any surgical procedure, comparing waxing or epilation against other hair removal methods or no hair removal, with SSI incidence as the primary outcome. There was no restriction on study size or quality to ensure a comprehensive literature evaluation. Results: The review found no studies meeting the selection criteria out of 576 records screened. Discussion / Conclusion: This review has identified no literature regarding the use of waxing and mechanical epilation as methods of preoperative hair removal. The lack of experimental evidence combined with the potential physiological advantages of these techniques indicate that this could be a valuable area of future research. These techniques may represent novel approaches to SSI prevention, particularly beneficial in high-risk surgical disciplines like vascular surgery.

    Keywords: Surgical site infection, Epilation, Waxing, Hair Removal, systematic review. (Min.5-Max. 8)

    Received: 04 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cutteridge, Garrido, Staniland, Lim, Totty, Lathan, Smith and Chetter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Joseph Cutteridge, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of York, Heslington, United Kingdom

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