Contamination Control in Ultraclean Air Operating Rooms

Bengt Ljungqvist and Berit Reinmüller

ISBN: 978-1-917195-08-9 ebook    -   £55
ISBN: 978-1-917195-09-6 Pb          -   £75
ISBN: 978-1-917195-10-2 Hb          -   £90

The hospital environment is contaminated by microorganisms of which some are antibiotic resistant. The number of airborne bacteria-carrying particles in the operating room is considered an indicator of the risk of infection to the patient undergoing surgery. To prevent surgical site infection, it is desirable to keep the number of bacteria-carrying particles as low as possible in the operating room air, especially during orthopaedic prosthetic surgery. Today, when the supply air to the operating room is HEPA-filtered, the main source of airborne microorganisms is from people (patient and personnel/staff). Alongside the ventilation system, the filtration efficacy of the fabric in surgical clothing
systems has a key role.

The work presented here is a summary of the results achieved by the authors over the last three decades in practical safety ventilation. This work focusses on contamination control in operating rooms regarding airborne bacteria-carrying particles and describes the technical control measures: ventilation (air distribution) and clothing systems.

Some of the chapters are based on papers published in peer-reviewed journals and the proceedings of international conferences. Furthermore, some of the results were earlier reported in Licentiate and PhD theses in the field of Safety Ventilation by Johan Nordenadler(PhD 2010), Pedro Gandra (Licentiate Eng 2018), and Catinka Ullmann (PhD 2019).This book is designed as a text for educational purposes and as a reference for practical applications. Each chapter covers a specific topic and can be read separately. Some mathematical expressions are described in equations as well as in figures. Examples of how to use these equations in practical situations are described in Chapter 12 while some mathematical descriptions devised for MSc and PhD students are included in Appendices A1 and A2.