Operating Room Fire

The operating room’s environment requires constant monitoring of fire risks. The conditions placing patients at risk for surgical fires are well defined. Most of these conditions are preventable but require a group or team effort by operating room personnel. A significant number of organizations have taken the initiative in a cooperative manner to increase awareness of the potential for surgical fires and have embarked on educational efforts on how to prevent these fires. The knowledge of how to manage the different types of operating room or surgical fires is also important, in order to reduce morbidity and mortality during these sentinel events. Therefore, knowledge of fire safety equipment in the operating rooms and policies and procedures are important in the educational process. Four scenarios are presented in this chapter to cover the information relating to operating room fires.