Operating Room

Whether a small cut with a knife, a surgical wound or a major injury caused by a fall the body's defense and repair system leaps into action and tries to close the wound as quickly as possible.

The healthcare industry is rife with opportunities to reduce the environmental impact it creates, with the added benefits of institutional financial gain, improved patient outcomes, better staff health and reduced turnover, and community benefit, according to a report from Practice Greenhealth and from the Institute for Innovation in Large Organizations.

Although it has always recommended institution laundering of surgical attire, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) is unequivocal on this position in its newly revised Recommended Practices for Surgical Attire, due for release this month.

Using the same technology found in clothing tags used in retail store tracking systems, a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that surgical sponges with implanted radio frequency (RF) tags may be an effective adjunct to manual counting and X-ray detection in preventing sponges from being left behind in patients following a surgical procedure.