Eliminating the use of traditional surgical skull caps in favor of bouffant caps does not reduce the rate of surgical site infections, according to a study published in Neurosurgery.
Hospital organizations have increasingly mandated the use of bouffant caps in place of surgical skull caps. Researchers examined SSI data at a single site with 25 operating rooms from January 2014 to March 2016.
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In February 2015, the hospital's policy changed to make use of bouffant caps compulsory. The researchers studied SSI rates for 7,513 patients in the 13 months before the policy change and for 8,446 patients in the 13 months after.
The study shows SSI rates increased by 0.07 percent overall for all operating room cases. However, researchers did not note a statistically significant difference in SSI rates before and after the bouffant cap policy implementation.