Decreasing contamination of the anesthesia environment

Abstract

Until recently, anesthetists have focused on antibiotic administration and normothermia but have paid less attention to contamination in the anesthesia environment and its impact on surgical site infections. We implemented a simple intervention and tested its effect on anesthetic environment contamination between procedure start and finish. Of the baseline cases, 46% reached a critical predefined threshold of contamination compared with 12% of the intervention cases. A small behavioral change dramatically lowered contamination in the anesthesia environment.