title: Quantification of facial contamination with blood during orthopaedic procedures.
abstract: Operative surgery exposes the surgeon to possible blood-borne infections. Risks include pen-etrating injuries and conjunctival contact with infected blood. Visor masks worn during orthopaedic trauma procedures were assessed for blood contamination using computer analysis. This was found to be present on 86% of masks, of which only 15% was recognized by the surgeon intraoperatively. Of the blood splashes 80% were less than 0.6mm in diameter. We conclude that power instrumentation produces a blood particulate mist causing considerable microscopic, facial contamination which is a significant risk to the surgeon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barry
mesh_terms: D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008397:Masks; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures; D011446:Prospective Studies