[Hygienic procedures in operating theatres--data obtained by hygiene control measures of the public health service at Frankfurt am Main in 2007 compared with 2000].
BACKGROUND
Good hygiene practice in hospitals and in operating theatres is mandatory to minimise nosocomial postoperative infections. Special guidelines of the German commission for hospital hygiene and infection prevention are available. Public health departments are obliged to control the implementation of appropriate hygienic measures in clinics. Here, the data of the hygiene control visits to all operating units in clinics in Frankfurt/Main in 2007 are presented, and compared to the data obtained in 2000.


METHODS
The constructive and functional as well as the personal hygiene were surveyed in all operating theatres in hospitals in Frankfurt/M, using a very detailed checklist with more than 100 items, based on the guidelines of the German commission for hospital hygiene and infection prevention. Checklist and control procedure in 2007 were identical to those used in 2000.


CONCLUSIONS
Since 2000, two clinics and several peripheral OP theatres have been closed, whereas in other clinics new operation theatres have been built, so that in 2007 in 16 hospitals 29 operating wards with 122 operating theatres were controlled (2000: 18 hospitals, 36 operating wards and 106 operating theatres). Layout of rooms, equipment with operating materials, cleaning and disinfection of surfaces, of anaesthetic devices as well as of surgical instruments were very much improved. In 2007, in all clinics, surgical instruments were processed according to standardised and validated methods (2000: 0!). In total, great improvements in hygiene procedures in operating units in Frankfurt/Main could be seen in 2007, compared to 2000.
Heudorf
U
U
Stadtgesundheitsamt Frankfurt, Abteilung Medizinische Dienste und Hygiene. ursel.heudorf@stadt-frankfurt.de
Hofmann
H
H
Kutzke
G
G
Otto
U
U