Comparison of the effect of masks and shield in incidence of wound surgical infection

Wound infection usually appears on days fifth to eighth after a surgery. The most important clinical signs are: redness, increased pain, and swelling or warmth around infected area. An effective way to reduce an infection is use of surgical mask for reduction of bacterial drips splashing from one's mouth or nose. This study was done to compare the effect of masks and shield in incidence of wound surgical infection
This study, which is considered as an observetional study, was done to compare the role of surgical mask and face shields in a wound infection. A number of 807 individuals participated in this study. A group of 404 patients was under surgery with use of mask and 403 patients had no use of mask (shield group). In shield or no mask group, individuals under study were in access and in group of mask, individuals under study were selected the same as first group. The required information were also gathered from abservation and interview.
In patients who have been under surgery with face shield, infection was observed in 26 individuals (6.5%) and in patients under surgery with mask, 34 individuals had wound infections (8.4%). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.34).
Conclution: According to this study, there was a 2% reduction of infection for the face shield comparing with use of mask but, this amount is negligible statistically. Therefore there is no privilege of using face shield to mask to prevent a surgical wound infection.