Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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tion devices, it's crucial to understand their most common injury risks, says Dr. Robinson. Even after you cut off energy to the device, it can still harm patients or staff because the heat retained in the tip of the instrument can inadvertently burn tissue. According to Dr. Robinson, that's because vibrations created by the ultrasonic energy can cause the tip of the instrument to heat up dramatically — in some cases to more than 300°C. The tip holds this residual heat, which poses a risk to any tissue it may touch on both the patient and the OR team using the device. "If the surgeon releases the trigger that acti- vates the ultrasonic device and then accidentally brushes the tip of the instrument against the bowel, you can still burn the tissue," says Dr. Robinson. 5. How many surgical fires are reported each year? a. 200 c. 600 b. 1,500 d. 5,000 c. Though surgical fires are rare, they are one of the most preventable adverse events, says Mr. Burlingame. Surgical fires can occur whenev- er the elements of the fire triangle are present. Are your surgeons and OR staff aware of the fire triangle? Refresh their memory: The fire tri- angle is when there's an ignition source (heat), a fuel source and an oxidizer (oxygen) present. The ignition source is often a spark caused by an electrosurgical device, says Dr. Robinson, while the fuel source can be anything from drapes to skin preps to the patient's own tissue. To prevent a fire, "you need to avoid, at minimum, 1 of the 3 parts of the fire triangle," says Dr. Robinson. That means performing a fire risk assessment before procedures when electrosurgery is being used, pre- venting alcohol-based (flammable) antiseptics from pooling around the patient and using draping techniques that avoid accumulation of 8 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SURGICAL ERRORS