Bacterial contamination in a modern operating suite. 1. Effect of ventilation on airborne bacteria and transfer of airborne particles

SUMMARYThe effect of ventilation on airborne contamination was studied in a new operating suite containing operating rooms with conventional ventilation (17−20 turnovers/h) and operating rooms with zonal ventilation, where the turnover in the central part of the room was˜80/h. The efficacy of the ventilation was first examined with gas tracer experiments and found satisfactory. Experiments using potassium iodide particles showed the transfer between adjacent rooms in the suite to be less than 10−3% with closed doors and from 1% to 2·5 × 10−2% when the doors were opened once a minute. The transfer between two adjacent operating rooms was calculated to be˜10−4%. There is thus little risk of spread of airborne infection between operating rooms.Experiments with potassium iodide particles showed that in operating rooms with zonal ventilation the particle concentration in the centre of the room was about one-tenth that in the periphery; in conventionally ventilated operating rooms the concentration was about one-half. With bacteria-carrying particles generated by human activity the concentration in the centre of operating rooms with zonal ventilation was about half that in the periphery both during experimental activity and operations; in conventionally ventilated operating rooms it was about equal in both cases. Bacterial counts at the periphery were found to be lower in rooms with zonal ventilation (˜ 50 c.f.u./m3) than in conventionally ventilated (˜ 70 c.f.u./m3).