Leg shaving/waxing

Don Shipp

In the "What do you guys look like" thread there is a picture of one cyclist who appears to wax his legs all the way up to his neck. Subsequent comments from the girls would indicate that they think that this looks good, at least for this particular example.

artemidorus

This is unsubstantiated by the medical literature.

pukka

What is? Do you think in the medicp legal world we practice in that we would do this for the hell of it?
I'd hate to bore you with literature on the subject, but let me know and I'll post it all here, just a few references to get you started

1. National Audit Office. Acute Infection Control in Acute Hospitals in England. Audit Commission , London 2000Cruse PJ, Foord R .
   
2. A five-year prospective study of 23,649 surgical wounds. Arch Surg 1973 ; 107: 206-10.
3. Thur de Koos P, McComas B. Shaving versus skin depilatory cream for preoperative skin preparation. A prospective study of wound infection rates. Am J Surg 1983 ; 145: 377-8.
4. Zentner J, Gilsbach J, Daschner F Incidence of wound infection in patients undergoing craniotomy: influence of type of shaving. Acta Neurochir Wien 1987; 86 : 79-82
5. Seropian R, Reynolds BM. Wound infections after preoperative depilatory versus razor preparation. Am J Surg 1971; 121: 251-4.
6. S, Kamiya A. Microbial contamination of brushes used for preoperative shaving J Hosp Infect 1992; 21: 103-10.

rooman

thanks Pukka....there's plenty more as well.....just a few posters seem to think their gene count is threatened by it!

cheers

roo

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I think..that the greatest benefit to cyclists would ensue if government were to..gradually signify and produce society's view that cycling is a legitimate form of roadway transportation, open to all on an equal basis of proper skills and responsibilities that are easily attained and exercised.(John Forester)

Don Shipp

What would you recomend for preventing the infections that cause saddle sores?

rooman

see a Doctor, if you have an infection, don't muck around...if you just have a saddle sore ( they come before the infection ), there are varying degrees of soreness from tenderness through to broken skin, to full nasty weeping badness........ keep area scrupulously clean, use a chamois cream, wash your knicks after every ride, and wear double knicks if its too uncomfortable for a while...(also if you have repeated discomfort), think about getting knicks with better chamois, especially reduce the edges near the threads by trimming them at an angle with scissors if that can be done, and/or get a better contoured pad type that fits your anatomy, its often trial and error, and when you find a chamois that fits , woohoo, lucky days...or look at the top end of the range where the science is in chamois research and design, pay the bucks and get the best...your butt will thank you!

We are now way off the original thread.

Time for a beer!

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I think..that the greatest benefit to cyclists would ensue if government were to..gradually signify and produce society's view that cycling is a legitimate form of roadway transportation, open to all on an equal basis of proper skills and responsibilities that are easily attained and exercised.(John Forester)

artemidorus

I could take you on a tour of any hospital ward and show you ten things that were simply a waste of money and another ten things that actually increase patient risk.
The current medicolegal climate leads to a lot of money wasting, but certainly doesn't prevent things being done for the hell of it. Trying to break down unnecessary, or even deleterious, tradition in the medical (especially the surgical!) and nursing professions can be very unrewarding, as many bright young interns and residents learn.

I think it is questionable whether papers pertaining to elective deep surgery at pre-prepared sites are translatable to unexpected, road-contaminated skin grazes, but let us assume that they are; I'll argue my case on your grounds.
Now, to address your citations:
I am unable to find your first on Medline.
Your second and fifth are there, but are too old to contain cited abstracts.
Your third is irrelevant to your argument, as it fails to compare outcomes of wounds at shaved sites versus unshaved sites in any way, let alone in randomised fashion. The same is also true, unfortunately, for your fourth and sixth citations.

Now, to return the favour:

1.Kjonniksen I. Andersen BM. Sondenaa VG. Segadal L.,Preoperative hair removal--a systematic literature review.,AORN Journal. 75(5):928-38, 940, 2002 May.
I'll paraphrase this for you: no strong evidence for or against pre-op hair removal, but if you do it, it shouldn't be by shaving! (This seems to be the only attempt at metaanalysis in the literature).

2.Winston KR.,Hair and neurosurgery,Neurosurgery. 31(2):320-9, 1992 Aug.
Shaving does not reduce infection rates and may increase them.

3.Menendez V et al, Is it necessary to shave the pubic and genital regions of patients undergoing endoscopic urological surgery?,Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 25(6):519-21, 2004 Jun.
Shaving doesn't change infection rates.

Even giving you the benefit of the doubt for your citations that I could not check, your choice of the others leads me to believe either that you did not read them or else that you lack a basic understanding of medical literature and scientific method. Were you simply trying to seem clever, in a blustering way?

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
please keep this debate within justifiable realms; there is no medical basis for the shaving of cyclists' limbs.