AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Inhalation Exposure to Aerosol Emitted when Using Electrocautery during Surgery: Operation Room Simulation Setting
SHUANG GAO, Michael Yermakov, Richard Koehler, Tiina Reponen, Sergey A. Grinshpun, University of Cincinnati
Abstract Number: 49 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract Surgical smoke generated from the use of thermal energy during surgical dissection has been previously recognized as an aerosol hazard. However, the inhalation exposure to aerosols generated in operating rooms remains insufficiently evaluated. Electrocautery is the most common energy source in surgical dissection. The smoke emitted from the tissue can be inhaled by the medical personnel and patients. In this effort, we deployed an electrocautery unit (Force FX, Covidien Ltd., Boulder, CO) in a room-size ventilated exposure chamber. The subjects applied the unit to an animal tissue (fresh pork) mimicking a conventional surgical procedure. The surgical smoke generated during this process was measured with a real-time aerosol spectrometer (NanoCheck, Model 1.326, Grimm Technologies Inc., Ainring, Germany). The aerosol sampling probe was placed in a subject’s breathing zone. The measurements were initially performed on ten subjects; the data from six subjects with 3–15 particle size-specific scans per subject were selected to generate a conservative inhalation exposure estimate. The concentrations and particle size distributions in the breathing zone varied from subject to subject; however, subject had no statistically significant effect on the total aerosol concentration, which in some tests exceeded 10$^6 particles per cm$^-3 (about three orders of magnitude higher than the background level). In most cases, the peak of the particle size distribution fell between 60 and 145 nm, which is consistent with the previously reported data obtained in a laboratory setting. The size-selective particle characterization achieved in this investigation creates the foundation for assessing the inhalation exposure to surgical smoke in hospital operating rooms; it will help quantify the associated health risks and consequently improve the available control strategies.
This effort was supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Pilot Research Project of the University of Cincinnati Education and Research Center, grant T42-OH008432.