title: Decreasing contamination of the anesthesia environment.
abstract: Until recently, anesthetists have focused on antibiotic administration and normothermia but have paid less attention to contamination in the anesthesia environment and its impact on surgical site infections. We implemented a simple intervention and tested its effect on anesthetic environment contamination between procedure start and finish. Of the baseline cases, 46% reached a critical predefined threshold of contamination compared with 12% of the intervention cases. A small behavioral change dramatically lowered contamination in the anesthesia environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH. Electronic address: cantwell.clark@hitchcock.org.
authors.forename: Cantwell
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taenzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Charette
authors.affiliation: Perioperative Services, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Whitty
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000379:methods*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Anesthesia environment; Contamination; Surgical site infection