Surgical drapes isolate the surgical site from non-sterile areas of the patient’s body and the operating table. They reduce the risk of surgical site infections (SSI). Optimising their barrier function can help to prevent microbial contamination and to improve patients’ safety.
Tina Leeb is an expert in microbiology. For the past three years, the experienced microbiologist has conducted research in product development for Lohmann & Rauscher and has helped to build the company’s own competence centre for biofilm. In our interview, she explains the unique characteristics of biofilm, the connection between medical products and microbiology, and what inspires her in her work.
Nosocomial infections represent the most frequent adverse event for patients during hospital stays, and they threaten the quality of patient care. Removing pathogens from inanimate surfaces could be a useful and helpful complement to conventional hygiene measures.
When wounds fail to close, medical assistance is needed. Here, measures to prevent biofilms from forming in the wound play a decisive role. Bacteria can lead to delayed wound healing – and this occurs much more frequently than previously assumed.
Surgical scrubs can aid in containing the spread of microorganisms found on the skin and on clothing worn outside the surgical area, and lower the incidence of surgical site infections. Choosing the right clothing for the personnel transfer area and establishing guidelines are important steps in limiting microbial spread and promoting patient safety.
Not only medical products play a decisive role in safe and hygienically secure operations. It is also essential that staples, scissors, hooks and other instruments are properly stored. This is the key message of the German Society for Sterile Supply (DGSV) in its “Recommendation on storage duration for sterile medical devices”. The type of storage is particularly important when single-use instruments are used, and this factor also determines the recommended length of storage.
How can hand hygiene compliance in hospitals be increased? This is one question that Simone Scheithauer addresses in her studies. Scheithauer is head of the Institute for Hospital Hygiene and Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital Göttingen, Germany. In the interview, she reveals reasons for poor compliance, along with effective approaches for better hand hygiene.
Before any surgery, there must be trust: Trust in the expertise and experience of doctors and OR staff, but also in the hospital's hygiene standards. Because even in routine procedures, wound infections - which can be avoided – unfortunately continue to occur.
