A critical review of a century's progress in surgical apparel: how far have we come?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H Laufman.
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The operating room presents environmental safety concerns unlike any problems in other parts of a health care facility. Special disciplines must be utilized to ensure that risk is minimized during surgery. This document addresses the needs of both the surgeon and the plant engineer in order for both groups to learn more about the other's concerns and problems.
Epidemiologic data indicates that blacks may be more susceptible than whites to infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Resistance to the in vivo growth of Mycobacteria in mice correlates with the persistence of MHC class II expression by peritoneal macrophages. The expression of HLA-DR by human monocytes from different groups of individuals also differs. The increase in the expression of HLA-DR by monocytes that occurs upon in vitro culture was prevented by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) in a majority of black donors. In contrast, the increase in HLA-DR expression by monocytes from the majority of white donors was unaffected.
This study assesses the changes in the expression of histocompatibility antigen (HLA)-DR by mononuclear phagocytes from HIV-infected individuals. Overnight culture of monocytes resulted in an increase in HLA-DR expression by monocytes from uninfected individuals. In contrast, the expression of HLA-DR by monocytes from HIV-infected patients decreased spontaneously and was most pronounced in patients with clinical AIDS. We also found that Mycobacterium avium grew within monocytes from patients infected with HIV. The correlation between major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression and Mycobacterial growth which has been reported in mice was not observed in monocytes from HIV-infected patients.
The expression of HLA class II glycoproteins by monocytes from HIV-infected individuals was evaluated. We found no differences in HLA-DR, HLA-DQ, or HLA-DP expression by freshly isolated monocytes from patients with clinical AIDS, HIV-infected patients without AIDS or from uninfected individuals. However, monocytes from HIV-infected individuals without AIDS responded better to stimulation with recombinant human interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) than did monocytes from patients with clinical AIDS or from uninfected individuals. The response to IFN-gamma stimulation by monocytes from patients with clinical AIDS was different. Thus, the largest increases in the percentage of cells expressing HLA-DR was associated with the smallest changes in the fluorescence intensity of the population that is observed following stimulation of monocytes from other patient populations.
Aseptic discipline is the sum of the constraining factors governing the human behavioristic interface between the surgical environment and the surgical patient. Although certain details of the discipline may change with advances in immunology, pharmacology, surgical techniques, instrumentation, and other elements in the surgical environment, the basic principles of aseptic discipline must prevail and be enforced. Surgical professionals enter into an unwritten covenant to keep an unspoken promise to discharge their unseen duties in the aseptic chain of events, with only their own consciences to monitor their responsibility to the patient. The discussion of aseptic discipline is divided into its application to the five D's of infection control: discipline, defense mechanisms, drugs, devices, and design of the environment.
1. The surgical environment is the sum of the physical and the functional milieu in which surgical operative procedures are carried out in the course of patient care. 2. Although we acknowledge advances in surgical technology that have made possible a whole array of new procedures, we must be concerned with their effects on the surgical environment of the 1990s. These concerns include control of the spread of blood borne diseases and the lagging field of infectious and hazardous waste disposal. 3. The needs are clear for better departmental and institutional master planning, better systems analysis, better inservice training of personnel, and more precise and functional programming and planning. All must be accomplished within a framework of safety, efficiency, and economy.
Out of the tumult of a turbulent, eight-century-long background of surgical skin and wound cleansing methods has come a set of basic principles that serve as performance specifications for new developments. Alcohol remains the superior skin antiseptic. Its characteristic rapid-drying effect and consequent loss of bactericidal action can be overcome by maintaining wetness or by admixture with emollients or longer-acting antiseptics. Today's combinations of cleaners, alcohol, and either iodophores or chlorhexidine have emerged from previous eras characterized by the use of metallic compounds, halogen compounds, and tincture of iodine. Published guidelines are important but must be looked upon as current consensus rather than standard practice.
There will always be a need for some kind of rapidly deployable, easy to assemble, temporary shelter for use in military conflicts, large-scale military disasters, industrial accidents, major construction projects in remote areas, refugee relocation centers, military hospitals, and any temporary outdoor event requiring cover. The history of tenting is essentially a history of man's ingenuity in creating portable, rapidly erected, temporary shelter. This article will be limited to the stages of development of the latest in military tent hospitals.
Flow cytometric DNA analysis of paraffin-embedded solid tumors has permitted review of large series of archival tissue in attempts to relate abnormal DNA content to prognosis. Limitations of the technique include: 1) a laborious, time-consuming procedure; 2) variation in technique between laboratories; and 3) lack of an objective method of computing DNA indices. Critical evaluation of our technique has shortened the time involved in dewaxing and rehydration, selectively utilized patient's own normal tissue as the internal standard, proved reproducibility of stored specimens, standardized DNA index computation, and developed a statistical analysis to confirm aneuploidy. These technical improvements and the development of a statistical analysis provide a way to shorten the procedure time and standardize the data generated from flow cytometric DNA analysis so as to improve the quality of retrospective reviews of paraffin-embedded tumors and accelerate the definition of flow cytometry's role as a prognostic indicator.
Recent advances in automated systems for surgical department management include enhancements in management methodology and improved economics of the surgical suites. Requirements of accountability legislation have stimulated development of a new generation of highly efficient software applicable to the surgical suite. These include surgical scheduling, preference lists in picking order, materials management, surgically related data and statistics, deployment of personnel and assignment of facilities. With recent advances in computer hardware and the availability of applicable software, the return on investment of these systems makes them affordable. Strategic surgical software can improve productivity, accuracy, efficiency of service and quality control while enhancing revenues to a surgical department.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Scanning electron microscopy was used to demonstrate the process of moist bacterial strike-through of woven and nonwoven surgical materials. Three woven and three nonwoven materials were challenged with an aqueous suspension of Serratia marcescens. The results of these studies confirmed that relatively new, less than 100 cycles of washing and sterilizing, 270 thread Quarpel treated Pima cotton prevents moist bacterial penetration. However, this same woven material when washed and sterilized more than 100 times allowed bacterial penetration. Nonwoven materials prevented penetration only when they were impregnated with plastic or reinforced with a plastic film. Prevention of moist bacterial strike-through of surgical materials, whether they be woven or nonwoven, is dependent upon the effectiveness of their waterproof quality. In woven materials, we have confirmed our previous findings indicating that loss of waterproof characteristics, which occurs after 75 washing-sterilizing cyclings, leads to permeability and to moist bacterial strike-through, regardless of the weave density. In nonwoven materials, dependable resistance to moist bacterial strike, through was achieved only when all moisture penetration was prevented by reinforcement with waterproof plastic film.
Accumulated evidence of the last decade has emphasized the multifaceted nature of wound infection control. Clean air is definitely one of the facets in the complex, but its place in the hierachy of precautions against wound infection has not been established, nor has the method of achieving acceptably clean air been universally agreed on. The surgical team and the patient are the prime sources of contamination during an operation, as evidenced by the good matches between bacteria of infected wounds and those of the team or the patient and by the poor matches between bacteria of infected wounds and airborne bacteria. Therefore, special air-handling systems, despite their ability to lower ambient bioparticulate counts, cannot be credited with being a highly relevant factor in the reduction of wound infection rates.