Open AccessMultiple Reservoirs Contribute to Intraoperative Bacterial Transmission
Author(s) -
Randy W. Loftus,
Jeremiah R. Brown,
Matthew D. Koff,
Sundara Reddy,
Stephen O. Heard,
Hetal M. Patel,
Patrick Fernandez,
Michael L. Beach,
Howard L. Corwin,
Jens Jensen,
David Kispert,
Bridget C. Huysman,
Thomas M. Dodds,
Kathryn L. Ruoff,
Mark P. Yeager
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
anesthesia and analgesia/anesthesia and analgesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.404
H-Index - 201
eISSN - 1526-7598
pISSN - 0003-2999
DOI - 10.1213/ane.0b013e31824970a2
Subject(s) - medicine , contamination , transmission (telecommunications) , isolation (microbiology) , surgery , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , ecology , electrical engineering , engineering
Intraoperative stopcock contamination is a frequent event associated with increased patient mortality. In the current study we examined the relative contributions of anesthesia provider hands, the patient, and the patient environment to stopcock contamination. Our secondary aims were to identify risk factors for stopcock contamination and to examine the prior association of stopcock contamination with 30-day postoperative infection and mortality. Additional microbiological analyses were completed to determine the prevalence of bacterial pathogens within intraoperative bacterial reservoirs. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was used to assess the contribution of reservoir bacterial pathogens to 30-day postoperative infections.