Reduction in Operating Room Airborne Particle Burden and Time-Dependent Contamination of Sterile Instrument Trays With the Use of a Novel Air Filtration System

IntroductionPostoperative infections represent a substantial burden to patients and healthcare systems. To improve patient care and reduce healthcare expenditures, interventions to reduce surgical infections must be employed. The crystalline C-band ultraviolet (UV-C) air filtration technology (Aerob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2022-07, Vol.14 (7), p.e26864-e26864
Main Authors: Hijji, Fady Y, Schneider, Andrew D, Reeves, Jeffrey T, Wilson, Michael L, Nye, Logan, Lyons, Joseph G, Prayson, Michael J, Rubino, Louis J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bone surgery
Data collection
Healthcare Technology
Mortality
Orthopedics
Prostheses
Quality Improvement
Surgical apparatus & instruments
Surgical site infections
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Summary:IntroductionPostoperative infections represent a substantial burden to patients and healthcare systems. To improve patient care and reduce healthcare expenditures, interventions to reduce surgical infections must be employed. The crystalline C-band ultraviolet (UV-C) air filtration technology (Aerobiotix Inc., Miamisburg, OH, USA) has been designed to reduce airborne bioburden through high-quality filtration and germicidal irradiation. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of a novel UV-C air filtration device to reduce airborne particle counts and contamination of surgical instrument trays in an operating room (OR) setting.Materials and methodsThirty sterile instrument trays were opened in a positive-air-flow OR. The trays were randomly assigned to one of two groups (UV-C or control, n=15 per group). In the UV-C group, the UV-C filtration device was used and in the control, it was not. All trays were opened with the use of a sterile technique and left exposed in the OR for four hours. Air was sampled by a particle counter to measure the numbers of 5µm and 10µm particles. Culture specimens were obtained from the trays to assess for bacterial contamination. Outcome data were collected at 30-minute intervals for the duration of the four-hour study period.ResultsUse of the UV-C device resulted in statistically significant reductions in the numbers of 5µm (average of 64.9% reduction when compared with the control, p
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.26864