dent.
"Sorry to bother you with this," I said, "but I cut myself during the
surgery and I'm here to test you for HIV." Her response buckled my
knees.
"You know," she said, "I've been meaning to ask for that test,
because I recently found out my husband is an IV drug user."
I had a wife and 2 young children at home, and at the time there were
no effective therapies available for HIV, so you can imagine the dark
thoughts that raced through my mind during the 4-hour wait for the test
result. Thankfully, it was negative.
But that near miss forever changed my views on sharps safety and
drove home the importance of doing all I can to protect myself, my
colleagues and my patients. That meant adopting blunt suture needles
and safety scalpels. It also meant double-gloving and hands-free
instrument passing. Here's how you can incorporate those technolo-
gies and techniques into your routine and eliminate sharps injuries
from your ORs, something I stress to the facility leaders and surgeons
I work with as a surgical safety consultant.
1
Blunt suture needles
Blunt suture needles hit the market soon after my HIV scare
and I began using them in every procedure. The first generation
of needles was frankly too blunt; you had to really push to get the
suture through fascia. Surgeons, including me, voiced their frustra-
tions to the needle manufacturers, who made improvements so now
you don't have to push any harder than you would with traditional
needles to pass suture through internal tissue. In fact, when I was try-
ing to convince my partners to use blunt suture needles, I'd secretly
hand them one during surgery and they'd continue working without
realizing that it wasn't a conventional needle.
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