Changing Gowns Without Re-Scrubbing

[GarretSTL]

I work in Cardio-Thoracic and noticed something the other day that I had never paid attention to before. After our RNFA harvests the conduit or the surgeon harvests the Mammary artery, they feel that they are "contaminated" and thus they change their gowns. However, many of them do not re-scrub or use Avaguard. They just remove the gown, throw it away, keep their hands above the waist level, and re-gown.

My question is if this is even possible to do without a re-scrub. I looked through an AORN book at work an found nothing. The Google searches have led me down similar paths. To me it seems like it is impossible since nothing touching the inside of your gown is sterile, thus removing it over your arms and hands would be considered contaminated.

I would love to hear anyone's opinion or a link to any official explanation.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

With practice, it is actually quite easy to remove the gown without any of the inside that touched non-sterile areas (also remember that skin is not sterile, even after the scrub) touching the arms or hands. It is much like opening sterile packages or peeling a banana open. When done properly, the gown is turned inside out as it is removed, thus the inside areas don't even have the opportunity to touch the scrubbed hands and arms.

[lth1123]

Repeat of the scrub is not necessary, but good technique. If there is no break in sterile technique, changing gown and gloves only is appropriate.