Safety in Surgery
Resources to reduce exposure risk and improve healthcare worker safety in surgical settings
Training video on hands-free transfer technique for passing
sharp instruments during surgery*
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Passing Sharps Safely: The Hands-Free Technique -
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Passing Sharps Safely: The Hands-Free Technique
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11-2012: The Hands-Free video is now available in French. Go here.
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*Copyright 2008, Bernadette Stringer. Video may not
be copied, in full or in part, reproduced by any means, or in any way
modified by any party, without written permission of the copyright
holder.
"Passing Sharps Safely: The
Hands-Free Technique" was written and produced by Bernadette
Stringer, RN, PhD, and Ted Haines, MD. We wish to thank Dr.
Stringer and Dr. Haines for permission to post the video on this
site.
Topics:
- Surgical exposure risk: epidemiology and prevention
- American College of Surgeons: statements on sharps safety in surgery
- Bibliographies on exposure risks in surgical settings
- FDA-OSHA-NIOSH Joint Safety Communication on Blunt-Tip Surgical Suture Needles - May 30, 2012
- Hands-free technique for passing sharp surgical instruments
- Interviews with surgical safety specialists
- Interviews with occupationally infected surgeons
- OSHA and CDC resources and recommendations
- Recommendations from surgical professional associations for sharps injury prevention
- Surgical safety products
- Surgical Sharps Safety Checklist
- Other surgical sharps safety resources
Surgical exposure risk - epidemiology and prevention:
- Bloodborne pathogen exposure risk among African surgeons (Phillips et al, Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol, 2007)
- Blunting sharps injuries in the OR (OR Manager, January 2010)
- CDC: Evaluation of blunt suture needles
- Epidemiology of sharps injuries in surgical settings (multicenter study)
- Increase in sharps injuries in surgical settings versus non-surgical settings after passage of national needlestick legislation (Journal of the American College of Surgeons, April 2010). Read abstract here.
- Needlestick injuries among surgeons in training (Makary et al, NEJM, 2007 - open access)
- Study finds many injuries to surgeons go unreported (New York Times article 6/28/07)
- OSHA/NIOSH Safety and Health Information Bulletin: Use of blunt-tip suture needles to decrease percutaneous injuries to surgical personnel (U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, March 2007)
- Personal protective equipment: goggles
- Scalpel blades: reducing injury risk (EPINet data analysis)
- Suture needle injuries fact sheet
- Suture needle and scalpel blade injuries (EPINet data analysis)
American College of Surgeons - statements on sharps safety in surgery:
- Publications on exposure risk and sharps injuries in surgical settings
- International Healthcare Worker Safety Center -- publications on exposure risk in surgical settings
Hands-free technique for passing sharp surgical instruments:
- Video
- Articles
- Hands-free technique in the operating room: reduction in body fluid exposure and the value of a training video (Stringer et al., 2009)
- Effectiveness of the hands-free technique in reducing operating theatre injuries (Stringer et al., 2002)
Interviews with surgical safety specialists:
- "Sharpless surgery": interview with Johns Hopkins professor and surgeon Martin Markary
- Sharps injury risk to medical students and surgeons-in-training: in a Voice of America report and video clip, Johns Hopkins surgeon Martin Makary is interviewed about ways to reduce sharps injury risk for trainees in surgical settings, including use of blunt suture needles. Report is here; to view video, scroll down page to video box.
- Interview with Mark Davis, M.D., former surgeon and surgical safety specialist
Interviews with infected surgeons:
- Lessons from an HCV-Infected Surgeon (Perry & Jagger, Bull. Am. Coll. Surg.)
- First Do No Harm: An HCV-Infected Surgeon's Difficult Choice
OSHA and CDC resources and recommendations:
- CDC: Evaluation of blunt suture needles
- NIOSH Science Blog: Preventing Needlesticks in Surgical Personnel
- OSHA Hospital e-Tool: Surgical Suite Module - recommendations for common occupational safety issues in surgical settings, including bloodborne pathogens
- OSHA/NIOSH-CDC Safety and Health Information Bulletin: Use of blunt-tip suture needles to decrease percutaneous injuries to surgical personnel (U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, March 2007)
Recommendations from surgical professional associations:
- American College of Surgeons:
- Association of Surgical Technologists: Recommended Standards of Practice for Sharps Safety and Use of the Neutral Zone
- Association of periOperative Registered Nurses
- Council on Surgical and PeriOperative Safety: Safe Surgery Principles (#6 deals with prevention of sharps injuries)
Surgical Sharps Safety Checklist
Other surgical sharps safety resources:
- Advances Precautions for Today's OR (book by Mark Davis, M.S.)
- EPINet for the OR (sharps injury surveillance tool for surgical settings)
- ORprecautions.com
- Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE) in Healthcare Settings
- free downloadable Powerpoint presentation with guidance for presenters/trainers
- free downloadable poster: "Sequence for Donning and Removing Personal Protective Equipment"
