Even though showering can lift patients’ spirits, potentially speeding recovery, concerns about contamination generally prompt doctors to advise against getting wounds wet by bathing until stitches are removed, which can take many days, or even weeks depending on the type of surgery. A recent study suggests, many patients may be able to shower just two days after their operations without increasing their risk of infections around the incision site. It has been observed that when researchers randomly permitted some patients with relatively low-risk surgical wounds to shower 48 hours after their operations, the people who got to bathe were happier with their care and their odds of infection were no different from those of their unwashed peers.
Traditional belief can only be abandoned when sufficient evidence from a scientific study indicates towards a change of mindset. For the current…
