Mainly to remove visible soils and – only to a small extent – to reduce microbial colonisation of the skin (e.g. in case of contamination with spores of C. difficile). Handwashing is far less indicated than generally believed. Hence...

Preoperative rub-in procedure by the application of a hand disinfectant before donning surgical gloves. Aims at the hands' microbial flora...

To ensure hand disinfection's required success, all hand areas need to be completely covered with the preparation during rubbing. Since the seventies, a sequence of six steps was considered the best rub-in technique to prevent...