A Quantitative Analysis of Airborne Contaminants in an Operating Theater

Abstract

A big problem in the health care sector today are the infections caused by airborne bacteria-carrying particles during surgeries. About 2 to 5 % of all patient undergoing surgery are affected by infections caused by the surgery. The aim of this paper is therefore to gather and then analyze data of particle concentrations and colony forming units (CFUs) during a surgery in a mixed airflow ventilated operating theater. The focus of the analysis was especially on the effect on the surgical smoke from diathermy and the emittance through surgical clothes. The necessary particle data was acquired with three particle counters and one CFUsampler during a rectum extirpation. Particles of sizes between 0.02 and 10 μm were investigated and five CFU samplings were performed during the surgery that took almost 4 hours. An air cleaner was also put on every second hour in order to see any improvements. The report shows a higher CFU value before the surgery, during the patient preparation (13 CFU/m3) than during the surgery itself (5 CFU/m3), and a maximum particle amount of 102 120 per cm3 was detected at a moment during surgery when electrosurgical equipment were in use. The smoke produced by electrosurgical equipment is hence one relevant factor for the particle impact on the environment. The study concludes that the routines before the surgery needs to be optimized in order to minimize the infection risks from airborne bacteria. For example a "quiet minute" could be introduced before the body opening to let the ventilation dilute the room from hazardous particles from the preparations. Furthermore, a tendency shows that the clothing systems source strengths from previous research might be exaggerated, but further investigations are needed to confirm this. Keywords: