Experimental measurements of surgical microenvironments in two operating rooms with laminar airflow and mixing ventilation systems

Abstract

At present, laminar airflow (LAF) systems and mixing ventilation (MV) systems are two commonly used ventilation solutions for operating rooms (ORs) to ensure the required indoor air quality. However, recent studies have shown that there is little difference in the prevalence of surgical site infection (SSI) for the LAF systems and MV systems. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of an LAF system with an MV system in ORs at St. Olavs hospital, Norway. In this study, all the experimental measurements were conducted in real ORs with LAF and MV systems. This study found that the air velocity above the surgical incision is approximately two times higher in the OR with LAF than that in the OR with MV. The use of surgical lamps and different airflow patterns may contribute to the different surgical microenvironment of ORs with LAF and MV.