There is good news for recipients of new knees—they may not have to wait two weeks following their surgery before taking a shower. A study, led by Harold Rees, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, found no differences in bacterial swabs taken from those who waited two weeks to shower compared with those allowed to shower after about two days.
Shower After Knee Surgery OK
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The study followed 32 patients. Researchers randomly assigned half to shower after two weeks. The other half showered as soon as their surgical dressing was removed—usually two days after surgery.
The study found that none of the patients developed a post-operative infection. And, to no ones surprise, the study authors discovered that patients permitted to shower sooner were much happier than those who could not.
According to the report, published online in the Journal of Arthroplasty, being able to shower soon after surgery was a priority for the majority of both groups. Given a choice, the study participants said they would have preferred to shower sooner rather than later after their surgery.
“What is needed now is a larger-scale study that can evaluate if early versus delayed wound cleaning has any effect on surgical-site wound infection risk for [knee replacement surgery], ” the researchers wrote.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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