Critical review on hospital surgical room and mechanical system designs

Abstract

The design of HVAC systems for surgical operating rooms requires specific guidance for the design engineer in order to insure that thermal comfort and sepsis control are maintained at all times in order to protect the occupants of the room. Operating room ventilation has been through significant design improvements from the beginning of the 20th century until now. Researchers have found that the room air distribution pattern is a critical parameter for airborne sepsis control, as most contaminants are introduced into the operating room by occupants and object within the room. Computational models have been used by many researchers to determine the room air distribution patterns for a variety of ventilation system and room configurations, but few of these models have been validated with experimental data. Further research is needed to both validate the models that are used for understanding the role of air distribution patterns in surgical sepsis control, as well as studying the impact of increasing heat loads in the next generation of surgical procedures.