The surgeon's garb.

A comprehensive evaluation of all factors associated with the surgeon's garb worn with and without laminar air flow revealed that in a conventional operating room, all personnel should wear an impermeable one-piece suit with foot attachments, any type of head cover, and, if they are going to be near the operative site or instrument table, a disposable mask. Scrub personnel should wear some type of a disposable gown to reduce the amount of surface contamination. The best way to reduce the environmental and surface contamination would be for all personnel to wear some type of a hooded exhaust equipment, but this is impractical both for circulating nurses and for anesthesiologists. Despite the reduction obtained from all the above controls, the reduction in the amount of bacterial contamination would not be as great as that obtained with laminar air flow, 93% (p < 0.005). Laminar air flow produced the greatest single reduction in environmental and surface contamination and variables such as time, people and attire did not influence the overall counts. The attire recommended for the conventional operating room can be used in laminar air flow with an expectation of overall reduction in contamination.