scholarly journals Blood and Body Fluid Splashes During Surgery – The Need for Eye Protection and Masks

2007 ◽  
Vol 89 (8) ◽  
pp. 770-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
CG Davies ◽  
MN Khan ◽  
ASK Ghauri ◽  
CJ Ranaboldo

INTRODUCTION While most surgeons make an effort to avoid needlestick injury, some can pay little attention to reduce the potential route of infection occurring when body fluids splash into the eye. It has been shown that transmission of HIV, hepatitis B or C can occur across any mucous membrane. This study aims to quantify how frequently body fluids splash the mask and lens of wrap around protective glasses thus potentially exposing the surgeon to infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective study was carried out by a single surgeon on all cases performed over a 1-year period. Protective mask and glasses were examined before and after operations. RESULTS A total of 384 operations were performed with 174 (45%) showing blood or body fluid splash on the lens. A high incidence of splashes was found in vascular surgical procedures (79%). All amputations showed splash on the protective lens. Interestingly, 50% of laparoscopic cases resulted in blood or body fluid splash on the protective lens. CONCLUSIONS This study has shown a high incidence (45%) of blood and body fluid splashes found on protective glasses and masks. There was a very high incidence (79%) during vascular surgical procedures. With the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis increasing, it seems prudent to protect oneself against possible routes of transmission.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-237
Author(s):  
Richard L. Schreiner ◽  
Harold Eitzen ◽  
Mary A. GfelI ◽  
Sharon Kress ◽  
Edwin L. Gresham ◽  
...  

Continuous gastric and transpyloric feeding techniques have been advocated for low birth weight infants, but bacterial surveillance studies of these systems have not been reported. A preliminary investigation in our nursery showed that 176(33%) of 576 formula samples obtained from the drip chaimber were contaminated. Using the same feeding system with a broth of Escherichia coil simulating the infant's stomach, none of 83 specimens of formula was contaminated, thereby eliminating the ascending route as the bacterial source. Five of 142 bottles of formula that were opened and exposed to room air for eight hours grew positive cultures. A prospective study of 115 infants showed that 354 (36%) of 976 cultures grown from material taken from formula drip chambers were positive; the presence of a vacuum flutter valve in the reservoir and the number of times formula was added to the chamber did not significantly affect the incidence of positive cultures. Milk reservoirs changed every 24 hours did not have a significantly different contamination rate from those changed every 12 hours. Results of cultures grown from organisms taken from the hands of nurses on the intensive care unit showed a high incidence of organisms that were similar to those cultured from the feeding chambers. This study demonstrates a very high rate of bacterial contamination of infant formulas administered by continuous drip and emphasizes the need for meticulous care in formula-handling techniques.


Author(s):  
M. Lisa Zhang ◽  
Remegio J. Maglantay ◽  
Vickie L. Cunningham ◽  
Michele T. Goodwin ◽  
Margaret W. Feeney ◽  
...  

Context.— Body fluid specimens are regularly submitted to the hematology laboratory for cell count and differential. Unless there is high clinical suspicion for malignancy, most cases lack concurrent cytology review and may not benefit from more focused examination for malignancy. Objective.— To compare rates of malignancy detection before and after fluid-focused training for hematology technologists as part of a quality improvement initiative. Design.— During an 8-week pretraining period, body fluids submitted to the cytology laboratory were correlated with concurrent hematology specimens. After slide review and training sessions for the hematology technologists, the same data were collected for a 4-week period. Discrepant cases were reviewed by hematology laboratory supervisors and pathologists. Results.— We collected 465 pretraining and 249 posttraining body fluids with concurrent cytology and hematology evaluation. In the pretraining cohort, 48 cases (10.3%) were diagnosed as malignant by cytology; of those, 33 were detected by hematology. In the posttraining cohort, 30 cases (12.0%) were diagnosed as malignant by cytology of which 27 were detected by hematology. Of the 18 discrepant cases (all carcinomas), hematology slide review showed definite features of malignancy in 15 and no tumor cells in 3. The malignancy detection rate by the hematology laboratory significantly improved after training (68.8% versus 90.0%, P = .01). Conclusions.— We demonstrate the comparatively lower malignancy detection rate for body fluid specimens processed in our hematology laboratory, particularly for carcinomas. Hematology technologist education/training improved the malignancy detection rate, an important quality improvement given the large proportion of body fluids undergoing hematology evaluation without concurrent cytology reviews.


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black

Tool materials used in ultramicrotomy are glass, developed by Latta and Hartmann (1) and diamond, introduced by Fernandez-Moran (2). While diamonds produce more good sections per knife edge than glass, they are expensive; require careful mounting and handling; and are time consuming to clean before and after usage, purchase from vendors (3-6 months waiting time), and regrind. Glass offers an easily accessible, inexpensive material ($0.04 per knife) with very high compressive strength (3) that can be employed in microtomy of metals (4) as well as biological materials. When the orthogonal machining process is being studied, glass offers additional advantages. Sections of metal or plastic can be dried down on the rake face, coated with Au-Pd, and examined directly in the SEM with no additional handling (5). Figure 1 shows aluminum chips microtomed with a 75° glass knife at a cutting speed of 1 mm/sec with a depth of cut of 1000 Å lying on the rake face of the knife.


2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 372-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Malina ◽  
Marie Nilsson ◽  
Jan Brunkwall ◽  
Krasnodar Ivancev ◽  
Timothy Resch ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Machado Gonçalves Soares ◽  
Izelda Maria Carvalho Costa

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS-Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome includes changes in body fat distribution, with or without metabolic changes. The loss of fat from the face, called facial lipoatrophy, is one of the most stigmatizing signs of the syndrome.OBJECTIVES:To evaluate the effect of FL treatment using polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) implants on disease progression, assessed by viral load and CD4 cell count.METHODS: This was a prospective study of 44 patients treated from July 2009 to December 2010. Male and female patients, aged over 18 years, with clinically detectable FL and who had never been treated were included in the study. PMMA implantation was done to fill atrophic areas. Laboratory tests were conducted to measure viral load and CD4 count before and after treatment.RESULTS: Of the 44 patients, 72.72% were male and 27.27% female, mean age of 44.38 years. Before treatment, 82% of patients had undetectable viral load, which increased to 88.6% after treatment, but without statistical significance (p = 0.67). CD4 count before treatment ranged from 209 to 1293, averaging 493.97. After treatment, the average increased to 548.61. The increase in CD4 count after treatment was statistically significant with p = 0.02.CONCLUSION: The treatment of FL with PMMA implants showed a statistically significant increase in CD4 count after treatment, revealing the impact of FL treatment on disease progression. Viral load before and after treatment did not vary significantly.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-295
Author(s):  
Deepika Kapoor ◽  
Deepanshu Garg

Orofacial clefts (OFC) are one of the most common congenital problems seen with a very high incidence. It imparts a negative effect on the overall health of the child by hindering in his feeding practices, normal facial growth, development of dentition and hence speech. Infants born with orofacial clefts have oronasal communication which creates a problem with the creation of negative pressure inside the oral cavity required for suckling.The treatment for such patients is with the multidisciplinary approach but the preliminary  concern for the neonate is to help with the feeding for which a feeding appliance is given. This case report presents a case of a 3-day old infant to whom a feeding appliance was given to aid in suckling. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921552110251
Author(s):  
Marla K Beauchamp ◽  
Rudy Niebuhr ◽  
Patricia Roche ◽  
Renata Kirkwood ◽  
Kathryn M Sibley

Objective: To determine the minimal clinically important difference of the Mini-BESTest in individuals’ post-stroke. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Outpatient stroke rehabilitation. Subjects: Fifty outpatients with stroke with a mean (SD) age of 60.8 (9.4). Intervention: Outpatients with stroke were assessed with the Mini-BESTest before and after a course of conventional rehabilitation. Rehabilitation sessions occurred one to two times/week for one hour and treatment duration was 1.3–42 weeks (mean (SD) = 17.4(10.6)). Main measures: We used a combination of anchor- and distribution-based approaches including a global rating of change in balance scale completed by physiotherapists and patients, the minimal detectable change with 95% confidence, and the optimal cut-point from receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: The average (SD) Mini-BESTest score at admission was 18.2 (6.5) and 22.4 (5.2) at discharge (effect size: 0.7) ( P = 0.001). Mean change scores on the Mini-BESTest for patient and physiotherapist ratings of small change were 4.2 and 4.3 points, and 4.7 and 5.3 points for substantial change, respectively. The minimal detectable change with 95% confidence for the Mini-BESTest was 3.2 points. The minimally clinical importance difference was determined to be 4 points for detecting small changes and 5 points for detecting substantial changes. Conclusions: A change of 4–5 points on the Mini-BEST is required to be perceptible to clinicians and patients, and beyond measurement error. These values can be used to interpret changes in balance in stroke rehabilitation research and practice.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002580242110109
Author(s):  
Sweety Sharma ◽  
Rito Chophi ◽  
Jaskirandeep Kaur Jossan ◽  
Rajinder Singh

The most important task in a criminal investigation is to detect and identify the recovered biological stains beyond reasonable scientific doubt and preserve the sample for further DNA analysis. In the light of this fact, many presumptive and confirmatory tests are routinely employed in the forensic laboratories to determine the type of body fluid. However, the currently used techniques are specific to one type of body fluid and hence it cannot be utilized to differentiate multiple body fluids. Moreover, these tests consume the samples in due process, and thus it becomes a great limitation especially considering the fact that samples are recovered in minute quantity in forensic cases. Therefore, such limitations necessitate the use of non-destructive techniques that can be applied simultaneously to all types of bodily fluids and allow sample preservation for further analysis. In the current work, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to circumvent the aforementioned limitations. The important factors which could influence the detection of blood such as the effect of substrates, washing/chemical treatment, ageing, and dilution limits on the analysis of blood have been analysed. In addition, blood discrimination from non-blood substance (biological and non-biological in nature) has also been studied. Chemometric technique that is PCA–LDA has been used to discriminate blood from other body fluids and it resulted in 100% accurate classification. Furthermore, blood and non-blood substances including fake blood have also been classified into separate clusters with a 100% accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. All-inclusive, this preliminary study substantiates the potential application of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for the non-destructive identification of blood traces in simulated forensic casework conditions with 0% rate of false classification.


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