Investigation of Environmental Parameters in Operating Rooms

Postoperative surgical site infection (SSI) is a serious and complicated healthcare-associated infection (HAI) affecting about 2% of patients undergoing orthopedic surgery. Exogenous infections, could occur from insufficient air quality in operating rooms as shown in previous studies. However, from our knowledge, no study have collect environmental parameters and cross referenced the data with recorded patient registries to see if insufficient air quality is associated with higher risk of exogenous SSI. Temperature, humidity and the difference in air pressure in relation to the operating room and the adjacent corridors are examples of environmental parameters that could affect the air quality in operating rooms. Number of persons during an operation and particle counts could also give an indication of insufficient air quality.