GLOVE TEARS AND SHARP INJURIES IN THE OPERATING ROOM

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GLOVE TEARS AND SHARP INJURIES IN THE OPERATING ROOM.

Concern about occupational exposure to HIV has increased interest in the epidemiology of risk in the operating room. To learn more about how exposures happen, researchers at Yale-New Haven Hospital had nurses interview operating-room personnel immediately after a possible exposure occurred.

During the three-month study period, in which there were 2292 surgical procedures, 249 personnel had visible glove tears; 92 percent of them were wearing only one pair of gloves, and no mechanism for the tear could be identified in 67 percent of instances. There were 70 sharp injuries: 67 percent by needles, 10 percent by scalpels, and 23 percent by other instruments. The researchers identified three common mechanisms of injury: in 16 percent of cases, hands were injured, while stationary and holding an instrument, by a sharp instrument passed into or out of the field. In 17 percent, hands were injured while being used to retract tissue. Several injuries were caused by sharp instruments not in use, such as needles in needle holders; the researchers believed that many of these instruments should have been removed from the surgical field.

These data suggest that many sharp injuries can be prevented by modifying standard operating-room procedures, and that glove tears might be reduced through design changes and use of double gloves.

— THL

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine October 4, 1991