Bacterial contamination of the surgical knife.
Two hundred and eight skin knives and 374 deep knives were evaluated in 153 clean orthopedic cases with and without a horizontal wall-less laminar air-flow system. There was no statistical difference in contamination frequency between the skin and the deep knives with and without the laminar air-flow. However, the knife blades were found to be contaminated less than laminar air-flow was used than when it was not (P less than 0.005). No correlation could be made between the cultures of the wound edges and the depth of the wound with the contaminated knife blades.
D000391:Air Microbiology; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D009985:Orthopedics; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D013525:Surgical Instruments