J Korean Med Sci.  2022 Sep;37(36):e273. 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e273.

Measurement and Control of Surgical Smoke to Enhance Surgical Team Safety

• Moon HJ
• Lee WJ

• KMID: 2533228
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e273

Abstract

Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 era, concern about the safety of surgical teams related to surgical smoke (SS) is rising. As simple ventilation improvement methods (SVIMs), we replaced 4 of the 8 supply diffusers with a direction-adjustable louver-type, closed 2 of the 4 exhaust grills, and strengthened the sealing of the doorway. Dynamic changes in the concentration of particulate matter (PM) with sizes of < 1.0 μm (PM1.0) were measured using low-cost PM meters (LCPMs) at eight locations in the operating room (OR). SS concentration up to 4 minutes at the location of the surgeon, first assistant, and scrub nurse before and after SVIMs application decreased from 65.4, 38.2, 35.7 µg/m ³ to 9.5, 0.1 and 0.7 µg/m ³ respectively. A similar decrease was observed in the other 5 locations. SVIMs could effectively control SS and the LCPM was also effective in measuring SS in the OR or other spaces of the hospital.

Keyword

Surgical Smoke; Operating Room; Ventilation System; Low-Cost Particulate Matter

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Operating room air conditioning improvement methods and changes in surgical smoke concentration. (A) The operating room floor plan and surgical smoke measurement locations 1 to 8. The red dotted line indicates the supply diffusers in the ceiling and the green dotted line indicates the exhaust grills on the wall. The red-lined double circle is the position of the surgical lamp. The numbered solid yellow arrows show where the SVIMs were applied. (B) PM1.0 concentration measurements were compared at 8 locations for 4 minutes before and after applying SVIMs. PM1.0, particle matter with a diameter of 1 micron or less. Statistical analysis: Wilcoxon signed-rank test.SVIM = simple ventilation improvement method, PM1.0 = particulate matter with sizes of < 1.0 μm.

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