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S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M O N T H 2 0 1 4
pulsed xenon ultraviolet disinfection by com-
paring bacterial contamination on surfaces and
in the air of ORs after standard cleaning and a
quick clean — defined as cleaning the table and
visibly soiled areas — followed by UV disinfec-
tion.
Enhanced disinfection has been shown to
reduce the contamination levels in ORs at termi-
nal clean. We wanted to see if these results could be replicated for between-case
cleaning. We demonstrated that while between-case contamination continued to
rise from case to case with standard cleaning, it was reduced to almost zero with
the pulsed xenon UV disinfection device. This suggests that enhanced disinfec-
tion in a busy OR may improve patient safety, particularly if your surveillance
demonstrates that environmental contamination may be contributing to an
increase in surgical site infections. Although we were initially excited about our
findings in our OR, further investigation showed that the bacterial isolates were
exclusively skin flora and not pathogens associated with our SSIs. Further inves-
tigation will be needed to determine whether UV disinfection can
reduce surgical site infections. Nonetheless, we've incorporated routine UV disin-
fection after terminal cleaning in our OR.
Research shows that hospital cleaning teams using standard cleaning practices
frequently don't disinfect all of a room's surfaces, with more than half of the sur-
faces remaining neglected. For our study, we sampled 12 surfaces in 2 ORs before
and after between-case cleaning, including the anesthesia keyboard, anesthesia
cart, anesthesia controls, intravenous infusion pole, overhead lamp, bed control,
Bair hugger control, floor, nurse's mouse, cautery power control, inside door sur-
face and Mayo stand. Four 5-minute UV treatment cycles were performed at stan-
dardized locations in the OR. As mentioned, the study showed that the UV system
reduced surface contamination with skin flora by 81% and air contamination by
46%. Future studies should include patients colonized and/or infected with
O R H Y G I E N E
Our OR study showed
that the UV system
reduced surface
contamination by 81%
and air contamination
by 46%.
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