The use of thioglycolic acd in hair-bearing skin inlay urethroplasty.

Thioglycolic acid, in commercially available spray, lotion or cream, was used to remove the hair from the scrotum, pubis and perineum in 45 patients, with minimal discomfort in only 11 patients and wound infection in only one. Eighty-five per cent of these patients said they preferred the depilatory cream to the routine pre-operative shave with a razor. In 3 of 4 patients where it was instilled intraurethrally to remove hairs from skin-inlay urethroplasties it was successful in removing hairs; in the fourth patient most of the hairs were removed. None of these patients had anything more than a short-lasting irritation afterwards.