Electricity: How Much for the Contemporary Tertiary Care Operating Room? A Case Report

Surgery requires many electrically driven devices. Three events occurred recently in an operating room (OR) suite circa the 1980s wherein circuit breakers tripped due to overloaded circuits. This led to us to (1) increase OR electric capacity; (2) record each instrument's power requirements, map their OR location, and determine when during surgery they were used; (3) provide users with instruction and diagrams into which outlet to plug each instrument. When introducing surgeries requiring devices, especially with high electrical power (current or amperage) demands, or renovating older or planning new ORs, it is important to provide ORs with sufficient electric current, circuits, and outlets.