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Prevention of surgical site infectionsas research topic
What was the importance of surgical technologist in the past
Prevention of surgical site infectionsas research topic
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Surgical Wounds and their Correlation to Surgical Technology
Surgery is one of the most common medical practices across the United States. Patients of all ages that undergo surgical procedures are left with some sort of surgical wound. Every surgical wound can be classified by the type of surgical procedure and will have a type of wound healing. Although only approximately 2.6% of surgical wounds become infected, surgical wounds can manifest into serious complications for a patient (Harbarth, Hoffmeyer, Lew, Peter & Pittet, 2010). One of the major complications of a surgical wound is postoperative infection. Due to the potential of surgical site infections, surgical technologists are among the operating room (OR) personnel responsible for insuring that all modifiable risks are minimized.
Surgical wounds can be classified between four types of wounds; clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated and dirty. Clean and clean-contaminated surgical wounds are wounds that involve the respiratory, genitourinary (GU), and gastrointestinal (GI) tracts. Clean surgical wounds pertain to wounds that do not penetrate into the above-mentioned tracts, are primarily closed and have no signs of inflammation or infection. Surgeries that produce clean surgical wounds include laparoscopies, mastectomies, neck dissections, thyroid surgeries, and hernia repairs (Sheetz, Scally, Sexton, & Terhune, 2012). Clean-contaminated surgical wounds are similar to clean wounds except that these types of wounds penetrate into the respiratory, GU, and GI tracts. These particular surgical wounds have no evidence of unusual contamination and are association with small bowel resections, liver transplants, and bronchoscopies (Sheetz et al., 2012). Contaminated ...
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...urgical wounds: Strategies for minimizing complications.
Contemporary OB/GYN, 57(9): 38-39. Retrieved from http://digital.healthcaregroup.advanstar.com/nxtbooks/advanstar/obgyn_201209/index.php?startid=38#/38.
Harbarth, S., Hoffmeyer, P., Lew, D., Peter, R. & Pittet, D. (2010). Preventing surgical site
infections. Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy, 8(6): 657. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/10.1586/eri.10.41.
Zinn, S.P. (n.d.). Wound healing: Types of wound healing. Retrieved January 28, 2014 from the
Medical Student Learning Center Official Site website:
http://www.medstudentlc.com/page.php?id=67.
Sheetz, K., Scally, C., Sexton, K., & Terhune, K. (2012). Surgical wound classifications.
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http://www.med.umich.edu/surgery/mast/r_surgwoundclass.html.
Surucuoglu S, Gazi H, Kurutepe S, Ozkutuk N, Ozbakkaloglu B (2005) Bacteriology of surgical wound infections in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey. East Afr Med J. 82:331–336.
Melling, C. A., Baqar, A., Eileen, M. S., & David, J. L. (2001, September 15). Effects of preoperative warming on the incidence of wound infection after clean surgery; a randomised control trial. The Lancet, 358, 876-880.
Antiseptics One of the leading surgeons of the time was also the first surgeon to use antiseptics in surgery. Joseph Lister believed that infections were a result of bacteria. He used various methods to fight the bacteria, constantly changing his methods over the years. He even went so far as to use vaporizing sprays in the surgery areas (Connor). His original method, developed in March of 1847, to keep a wound sterilized was to “[use] [carbolic acid] to clean a wound, and then [apply] a piece of lint, soaked in the acid, as a dressing, covered by a slightly larger piece of thin tin or sheet lead in order to prevent evaporation of the acid.
Surgical errors are seen in every hospital; however, hospitals are not required to report such incidents. Unintended retained foreign objects, often abbreviated as URFOs, are among those events that are often not reported.
There are several benefits to double-gloving that have been supported by recent studies [1-4]. By double-gloving, it has been shown that the transfer of virus to healthcare workers’ hands is significantly decreased, as compared to single gloving [1]. Perhaps the incidence of nosocomial infections could be reduced if double-gloving were a requirement in healthcare settings. In the operating room (OR), double-gloving has been shown to provide superior protection against potential exposure to blood-borne pathogens [2]. Breaking the barrier between an OR nurses’ hands and the external environment was shown to occur in 8.9% of cases in one study in which single-gloving was practiced during surgical procedures [2]. Remarkably, in the same study, it was shown that when double-gloving was practiced, there was not a single case of both layers of gloves being perforated [2]. From the evidence provided in that study, one could assume that when double-gloving is practiced, it is virtually impossible for the hands of a healthcare worker to become exposed to the external environment during a sur...
Pressure ulcers are one of the most common problems health care facilities often face which causes pain and discomfort for the patient, cost effective to manage and impacts negatively on the hospital (Pieper, Langemo, & Cuddigan, 2009; Padula et al., 2011). The development of pressure ulcers occur when there is injury to the skin or tissue usually over bony prominences such as the coccyx, sacrum or heels from the increase of pressure and shear. This injury will compromise blood flow and result in ischemia due to lack of oxygen being delivered (Gyawali et al., 2011). Patients such as those who are critically ill or bed bounded are at high risk of developing pressure ulcers (O'Brien et al., 2014).
The Company publishes "Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment," which quickly becomes one of the standard teaching texts for antiseptic surgery. It helps spread the practice of sterile surgery in the U.S. and around the world.
Over time the occurrences of surgical Never Events has decreased with the help of checklists and other procedures implemented in the work place.
Because I provide the surgeon with medications, hemostatic agents and irrigation solutions it is crucial to know the proper usage of each, along with the side effects, patient's allergies, and contradictions of certain medications and their reactive
Hospital acquired infections are spread by numerous routes including contact, intravenous routes, air, water, oral routes, and through surgery. The most common types of infections in hospitals include urinary tract infections (32%), surgical site infections (22%), pneumonia (15%), and bloodstream infections (14%). ( book). The most common microorganisms associated with the types of infections are Esherichila coli, Enterococcus species, Staphylococcus auerus, Coagulase-negative staphylococci, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa.(secondary) Urinary tract infections occur when one or more of microorganisms enter the urinary system and affect the bladder and/or the kidneys. These infections are often associated improper catheterization technique. Surgical site infections occur after surgery in the part of the body where the surgery took place. These infections may involve the top of the skin, the tissue under the skin, organs, or blood vessels. Surgical site infections sometimes take days or months after surgery to develop. The infections can be cause by improper hand washing, dressing change technique, or improper surgery procedure. Pneumonia can also become a hospital acquired infection. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a type of lung in...
In 1865 before an operation, he cleansed a leg wound first with carbolic acid, and performed the surgery with sterilized (by heat) instruments. The wound healed, and the patient survived. Prior to surgery, the patient would need an amputation. However, by incorporating these antiseptic procedures in all of his surgeries, he decreased postoperative deaths. The use of antiseptics eventually helped reduce bacterial infection not only in surgery but also in childbirth and in the treatment of battle wounds.
(2014) shed light on two key components for infection control, which includes protecting patients from acquiring infections and protecting health care workers from becoming infected (Curchoe et al., 2014). The techniques that are used to protect patients also provide protection for nurses and other health care workers alike. In order to prevent the spread of infections, it is important for health care workers to be meticulous and attentive when providing care to already vulnerable patients (Curchoe et al., 2014). If a health care worker is aware they may contaminate the surroundings of a patient, they must properly clean, disinfect, and sterilize any contaminated objects in order to reduce or eliminate microorganisms (Curchoe et al., 2014). It is also ideal to change gloves after contact with contaminated secretions and before leaving a patient’s room (Curchoe, 2014). Research suggests that due to standard precaution, gloves must be worn as a single-use item for each invasive procedure, contact with sterile sites, and non-intact skin or mucous membranes (Curchoe et al., 2014). Hence, it is critical that health care workers change gloves during any activity that has been assessed as carrying a risk of exposure to body substances, secretions, excretions, and blood (Curchoe et al.,
Our approach in managing wounds was far from being optimal in our own setting. After having read the article of Sibbald et al (1) and assisting to presentations during the first residential week-end, our approach at St. Mary 's Hospital Center 's Family Medicine Clinic must change. We were not classifying wounds as healable, maintenance or non-healable. We were always considering the wounds in our practice as healable despite considering the system 's restraints or the patients ' preferences. In the following lines, I will define and summarize the methods one should use in order to initial management of wounds and how to integrate it better to our site. The first goal we need to set is to determine its ability to heal. In order to ascertain if a wound is healable, maintenance or a non-healable wound.
The normal wound healing process mainly consists of four main stages being haemostasis, inflammation, proliferation or new tissue formation, and tissue remodeling or resolution. For a wound to heal well the above mentioned stages should occur in a sequential and orderly manner. Disturbances, abnormalities and delays in any of the above stages may lead to impaired healing or even chronic wounds. In adults, this process of normal healing takes place in the following steps (1)rapid haemostasis (2)appropriate inflammation (3)mesenchymal cell differentiation, proliferation, and migration to the wound site (4)suitable angiogenesis (5)prompt re-epithelialization and (6) proper synthesis, cross-linking, and alignment of collagen to provide strength to the healing tissue.
Although the importance of aseptic technique has been continually reiterated, I have realised its substantial role in the perioperative environment. Aseptic technique refers to the practice of creating and maintaining a sterile environment used for sterile procedures (Laws, 2010a). This is incredibly important as repetitive minor breaches of the sterile environment is one of the major factors increasing the risk of surgical site infection (Harrop et al., 2012).