Operating Room

Wrapping wound dressings around fingers and toes can be tricky, but for burn victims, guarding them against infection is critical. Today, scientists are reporting the development of novel, ultrathin coatings called nanosheets that can cling to the body's most difficult-to-protect contours and keep bacteria at bay. The researchers are speaking about their materials, which they've tested on mice, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Experts are pushing for a surgical conscience in the operating room that also encompasses a heightened awareness of intraoperative transmission of potentially pathogenic organisms and a comprehensive environmental hygiene program in which both processes and outcomes issues related to the role of the operating room environment in pathogen transmission are monitored and measured. While the role of the environment continues to be an imperative, renewed focus is being placed on the operating theater's obligation to control and prevention infections.

It is generally understood that police officers, firefighters, military professionals, stuntmen and women, wild animal trainers and racecar drivers accept the obvious personal risk that comes with their careers. Healthcare providers, however, do not typically think of themselves as thrill-seekers or extreme risk takers. Most nurses, physicians, surgical technologists, phlebotomists, lab technicians, radiologists and sterile processing professionals probably do not expect their lives to change forever because of an accidental jab with a contaminated hypodermic needle, suture needle, scalpel, retractor, or other sharp device. And yet, lives can be changed, literally in an instant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 385,000 percutaneous injuries (needle sticks, cuts, punctures and other injuries with sharp objects) occur in U.S. hospitals each year. CDC estimates that every day, more than 1,000 hospital-based professionals sustain an injury from contaminated needles and other sharp devices during the delivery of patient care. These injuries carry a risk of infection with dangerous and potentially fatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV), among other pathogens. Of the HIV/AIDS infected healthcare professionals, most are nurses and laboratory workers, and most cases are contracted from percutaneous exposure.

Government agencies and professional organizations are helping ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) integrate infection control practices to help move the dial on surgical site infections (SSIs).

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are preventable. Yet despite ongoing surveillance, rigorous protocols and well-researched policies, HAI’s still occur in one in twenty patients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC notes that surgical site infections remain the most common HAI, affecting 1 in 50 patients.