Operating theatre staff

About 20% of halothane is metabolised and it induces hepatic enzymes, including those of anaesthetists and operating theatre staff. Hepatic damage occurs in a small proportion of exposed patients. Typically fever develops 2 or 3 days after anaesthesia accompanied by anorexia, nausea and vomiting. In more severe cases this is followed by transient jaundice or, very rarely, fatal hepatic necrosis. Severe hepatitis is a complication of repeatedly administered halothane anaesthesia and has an incidence of 1 50000. It follows immime sensitisation to an oxidative metabolite of halothane in susceptible individuals. This serious complication, along with the other disadvantages of halothane and the popularity of sevoflurane for inhalational induction, has almost eliminated its use in the developed world. It remains in common use other parts of the world because it is comparatively inexpensive. 

H Malta, AM Thompson, JB Rainey. Does wearing two pairs of gloves protect operating theatre staff from skin contaminations Br Med J 297 597-598, 1988. 

A Safety Attitudes Questionnaire was administered to operating theatre staff before and after a simulation- based team training program, to assess the effectiveness of the program in changing the safety and teamwork culture. At present, insufficient data are currently available to allow statistically valid conclusions to be drawn. 

We would like to thank all the staff of the Southern Health Simulation and Skills Centre, and Biomedical engineers who assisted in die development and delivery of the program, and the operating theatre staff of die Alfred hospital for their participation. 

In SED VII and VIII, reference was made to the possible deleterious effects of low concentrations of anaesthetic agents in the atmosphere of operating rooms. More specifically, the influence on abortion rates and congenital anomalies of children bom to female anaesthetists was described. Desbaumes et al. (2C) measured brominated metabolites of halothane in the urine of 18 members of the operating theatre staff and found a striking difference between women and men (14.59 mg/1 and 3.04 mg/1 respectively). This difference may be explained by the fact that women staff members are more likely to be continuously present in the operating theatre or that they retain halothane more easily in their body fat. Only the first explanation is consistent with the sex difference in fluroxene toxicity found in mice (3), as this toxicity was more marked in males. 

Adverse effects. The incidence of nausea and vomiting increases with the duration of anaesthesia. Nitrous oxide interferes with the synthesis of methionine, deoxythymidine and DNA. Exposure of to nitrous oxide for more than 4 hours can cause megaloblastic changes in the bone marrow. Because prolonged and repeated exposure of staff as well as of patients may be associated with bone-marrow depression and teratogenic risk, scavenging systems are used to minimise ambient concentrations in operating theatres. 

Healthcare and hygiene products are an important sector in the field of medicine and surgery. The range of products available is vast but typically they are used either in the operating theatre or on the hospital ward for the hygiene, care and safety of staff, and patients. Table 5.6 illustrates the range of products used in this category and includes the fibres and/or materials used and the method of manufacture. 

Textile materials used in the operating theatre include surgeons gowns, caps and masks, patient drapes, and cover cloths of various sizes (Fig. 5.7). It is essential that the environment of the operating theatre is clean and a strict control of infection is maintained. A possible source of infection to the patient is the pollutant particles shed by the nursing staff, which carry bacteria. Surgical gowns should act as a barrier to... 

Within pharmacy, aseptic handling is carried out in a controlled environment by trained staff. In any hospital, however, aseptic handling also takes place in clinical areas such as wards and operating theatres [4, 5]. This chapter only discusses aseptic handling in pharmacy. Aseptic handling in clinical areas is described in Sect. 13.8. 

This chapter deals with the medical and related health care sector more precisely the textiles used in the operating theatre and hospital ward for the hygiene, care and safety of staff and patients. 

In the past, the main reason for using textiles in the operating theatre was to protect the patient from the medical staff. Today, the opposite also applies and healthcare workers need protection becanse of the spread of Aids, Hepatitis B and other infections. These requirements demand the development of more effective protective textiles. So, the scientific commnnity and the textile researchers, in particular, must work together to respond to the needs of barrier and comfort concerns of healthcare workers. 

Surgical gowns are nsed in the operating theatre to prevent transfer of infective agents. The infective agent can arise from a variety of sources, including airborne bacteria, contact with staff and from the patient s skin bacteria. 

A possible source of infection to the patient is the pollutant particles dropped by the nursing staff, which carry bacteria. Single-use nonwoven products in the operating theatre have been adopted to prevent these sources of contamination of the patient. 

We may define capacity in terms of the treatment pathways of patients (Rechel et al. 2010), and the resources that constrain them (bottlenecks). The ccmstraining elements could be the number of beds, operating theatres, diagnostic equipment, and the specialist staff. To identify a bottleneck resource, the pathways must be tracked to examine whether one or more pathways intersect at a particular resource causing possible bottlenecks. The objective would be to find the shortest path for each patient within the network, while minimizing delays at bottlenecks. This approach has major implications for patient satisfaction and hospital capabilities, as it focuses on the patient. 

These hospitals have all the up to date equipment required for the optimum rehabilitation of injured persons. In addition to operating theatres. X-ray departments and so on they also have all the apparatus required for modern therapeutic exercises—physical treatment, occupational therapy, sport for the disabled— and the necessary trained staff. The hospitals also contain, as far as required, special departments for spinal cord injuries, serious burns, hand injuries and so on. They are supported either by individual BGs or by a group of several BGs in the form of a society under civil law. All these hospitals have formed a federation, in which the practical and the scientific work is co-ordinated and research on future procedures is undertaken jointly by the practitioners and scientists concerned. 

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