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O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4 | 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
Answer:
d
Failing to evacuate smoke during surgery is just as harmful to patients as it is to
staff. For example, as smoke is produced inside the abdomen during
laparoscopy, it's absorbed through the peritoneal membrane, which increases
methemoglobin and carboxyhemoglobin concentrations in the patient's blood-
stream. This increase reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells.
Because pulse oximeter readings are compromised in the presence of these
variants, it can cause falsely elevated readings, which means anesthesia
providers might not notice when patients become hypoxic.
Standard surgical masks,
as opposed to high-filtration masks,
filter particles that measure _________ in diameter.
a.
about 5 centimeters
b.
less than 1.1 micrometers
c.
about 5 micrometers
Answer:
c
Standard surgical masks weren't made for keeping smoke out, so it's not sur-
prising they don't always do a great job of it. Keep your staff safe. Let them
know that standard surgical masks filter at various efficiencies, but most only
filter particles up to about 5 micrometers in diameter. That means the majority
of the smaller-particle surgical smoke — including harmful chemicals and virus-
es — are sneaking through. High-filtration masks, sometimes called "laser"
masks, offer better protection, filtering particles up to 0.1 micrometer in diame-
ter.
S U R G I C A L S M O K E
