DOES THE SIZE OF THE OR INCREASE INFECTION RATES?
By Admin | January 20, 2022
A new retrospective cohort study of 11,163 patients who’d been treated with orthopedic surgery between January 2018 and January 2020 has looked at the relationship between operating room (OR) size and surgical site infection (SSI) rates. Their work, “The Effect of Operating Room Size on Orthopaedic Surgical Site Infection Rates,” was published in the December 1, 2021 edition of The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
“We decided to do this study mainly based upon the variability of operating room sizes seen within our health system. As many of the operating rooms are different sizes, based upon building codes at the time when the hospitals were constructed, we sought to identify if any association existed between the size of the operating room and orthopedic surgical site infection rates,” stated co-author Tyler Tantillo, D.O. to OTW. Dr. Tantillo is with the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Plainview Hospital in Plainview, New York.
The researchers noted the total net square footage of all ORs and determined the incidence of SSIs. They defined a small OR as 250 to 399 net square feet, a medium OR as 400 to 549 net square feet, and a large OR as 550 to 699 net square feet.
The team found that 137 patients (1.2%) developed an SSI. Of these, 16 (11.7%) were found in small ORs, 83 (60.6%) in medium ORs, and 38 (27.7%) in large ORs. The incidence of SSIs was 0.7% in small ORs, 1.3% in medium ORs, and 1.8% in large ORs. The authors wrote, “Factors found to significantly impact SSIs included...(More)
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