Fortunately, I was placed on
the transplant list. While I wait-
ed for a donor, the disease pro-
gressed fairly rapidly. I was on
oxygen 24/7, could hardly move
and felt like I was dying.
Eventually in 2014, I underwent
the double lung transplant and
slowly got my life back.
Still, I was stumped.
Environmental pollutants are
often attributed to idiopathic
pulmonary fibrosis, and being a
smoker can increase your risk
of getting the disease. But I had-
n't smoked cigarettes in more
than 40 years, and though I
spent time in the military when
I was younger, I was never exposed to agent orange or other similar
materials. It was an open-ended question. But the more I thought
about it, the more I fixated on Bovie smoke.
Surgical smoke dangers
Surgical smoke includes roughly 150 chemicals, including 16 EPA pri-
ority pollutants, toxic and carcinogenic substances, viruses and bacte-
ria. I carry a list that contains the dozens of toxic chemicals that are
contained in the smoke. They include formaldehyde, benzene, hydro-
gen cyanide and more. When you ablate tissue, the organisms found
within that tissue are also ablated and carried by the smoke. That's
why there have been reported cases where gynecologists develop
3 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R U Y 2 0 1 8
• SHARP PENCIL Some smoke evacuation pencils attach to your
electrocautery device and remove smoke at the point of contact.
Hedley
Orthpaedic
Institute
