Percutaneous Injuries During Operation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Despite the high standards set for performance, equipment, and a controlled, safe environment, the modern operating room remains potentially hostile to both the patient and the surgical team.1Health hazards, although uncommonly encountered, include those of a physical, chemical, and biological nature. Prior to the early 1980s, when the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was found to cause the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the emphasis concerning biological hazards was placed on the patient as a host for nosocomial bacterial infections. Consideration of the patient as the vector of blood-borne viral infections has evolved during the last decade—a late realization considering the 30-year knowledge that hepatitis B virus (HBV) is acquired in the workplace and has been responsible for many deaths, now estimated at over 200 health care workers (HCWs) annually.2,3It appears that the apparently uniform fatal outcome of clinical AIDS, combined with the absence of a preventive vaccine