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Impact of a recapping device on venepuncture-related needlestick injury
P N Goldwater1, R Law, A D Nixon
1Adelaide Children's Hospital, South Australia.
Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
|January 1, 1989
Abstract:
In a 33-month prospective analysis of needlestick injuries, venepuncturists working under Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines for handling used needles were shown to incur a needlestick injury for every 3,175 to 4,006 needle-handling procedures. On the other hand, users of a simple device designed to reduce the risk of injury when recapping used needles were shown to incur a needlestick only once in every 16,100 venepunctures performed (P less than 0.001). This represents a fourfold reduction in the rate of needlestick injuries. We thus question the effectiveness of the CDC nonrecapping policy.