Background
Understanding the protective potential of operating room (OR) ventilation under different
conditions is crucial to optimizing the surgical environment. This study investigated
the air quality, expressed as colony-forming units (CFU)/m3, during orthopedic trauma surgery in a displacement-ventilated OR; explored how traffic
flow and the number of persons present in the OR affects the air contamination rate
in the vicinity of surgical wounds; and identified reasons for door openings in the
OR.
Methods
Data collection, consisting of active air sampling and observations, was performed
during 30 orthopedic procedures.
Results
In 52 of the 91 air samples collected (57%), the CFU/m3 values exceeded the recommended level of <10 CFU/m3. In addition, the data showed a strongly positive correlation between the total CFU/m3 per operation and total traffic flow per operation (r = 0.74; P = .001; n = 24), after controlling for duration of surgery. A weaker, yet still positive
correlation between CFU/m3 and the number of persons present in the OR (r = 0.22; P = .04; n = 82) was also found. Traffic flow, number of persons present, and duration
of surgery explained 68% of the variance in total CFU/m3 (P = .001).
Conclusions
Traffic flow has a strong negative impact on the OR environment. The results of this
study support interventions aimed at preventing surgical site infections by reducing
traffic flow in the OR.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 30, 2012
Footnotes
Author contributions: A.E.A., I.B., B.E., J.K., and K.N. designed the study; A.E.A. performed data collection and coordination; A.E.A. and I.B. analyzed data; and A.E.A., I.B., B.E., J.K., and K.N. wrote the manuscript.
Conflict of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
