Prostate surgery prep shaving – Should I shave my groin?

Before I went in for da Vinci prostate surgery, I wondered if I needed to shave my groin area. I don’t remember anyone saying anything to me about this. I thought,  “should I help them out and shave my groin?

No, no, no.

About a week before my surgery, I had to go in for preadmission testing – click here for my post on prostate surgery preadmission details.

So I casually asked the preadmission nurse, do I need to shave my groin before surgery day?

No, she told me. We will do it during the surgical prep phase, if we need to.

Ok, but why you and not me?

One of the main goals of prostate surgery – or any surgery really – is to avoid infection. If the patient does the shaving, he may not do a good job and create some nicks or cuts down there, and nobody wants that. An open wound in an operating room environment is not a good thing.

So I followed directions and did not shave anything down there – figuring they will do it if they need to, just like the nurse said.

Well they needed to – and they did it – during the prep phase, after I was knocked out in the operating room.

The bottom line is that I followed their instructions not to shave my groin area before surgery – they did the shaving – and I ended up having no problems.

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