Irritancy of scrubbing up for surgery with or without a brush

Hand washing is an indispensable procedure for surgical nurses. Although sc rubbing up with a brush is preferable to prevent infections, it is not clea r how irritating to the skin scrubbing with a brush is compared with hand w ashing without a brush. TEWL, high frequency conductance and pH were measur ed on the hand skin of the same group of nurses before and after daily hand washing for 11 days in different seasons, which were chosen as favourable and unfavourable periods for the condition of hand skin, namely the early s ummer and autumn. Additionally, we compared the antimicrobial effects on th e skin of scrubbing up, using a palm stamp method. TEWL showed significantl y higher values with brush washing than with simple hand washing only in th e autumn. There was no significant difference in the measurement of high fr equency conductance, pH or in the antimicrobial effects between the two was hing techniques. Results showed the deleterious effects on the skin of hand washing, particularly that of using a brush in the cold season.