Abstract
Many surgeons use a single table of instruments for both excisional debridement and coverage/closure of infected wounds. This study investigates the effectiveness of a two-table set-up of sterile instruments, in addition to glove exchange, to reduce instrument cross-contamination during these procedures. This is a prospective, single-site, institutional review board-approved observational study of surgical debridements of infected wounds over a 17-month period. Two separate sterile surgical tables were used for each case: Table A for initial wound debridement (debridement set-up) and Table B for wound coverage/closure (clean set-up). Swabs of each table and its respective instruments were taken after debridement but prior to coverage/closure. The primary outcome of interest was bacterial growth at 48 hours. There were 72 surgical cases included in this study. Culture results of Table A demonstrated bacterial growth in 23 of 72 (32%) cases at 48 hours compared with 5of 72 (7%) from Table B (P =.001). These data suggest that there is significant bacterial contamination of surgical instruments used for debridement of infected wounds. Use of a two-table set-up reduced instrument cross-contamination by 78%, suggesting avoidable re-contamination of the wound.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 664-669 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | International Wound Journal |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2021 |
Keywords
- debridement
- equipment contamination
- surgical gloves
- surgical instrument
- surgical site infection
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surgery
- Dermatology