A microbiological study of the contamination of the syringes used in anaesthesia practice

In many operating theatres, it is common practice to reuse disposable plastic syringes with the same needles for several injections to different patients during the same day. This practice could lead to bacterial contamination of these syringes, making them an infection hazard to patients. We did a microbiologic survey of 100 of the most frequently reused syringes in our operating rooms and a control group of 100 single-use syringes. Only three of the syringes were contaminated in each group. None of the patients exposed to the syringes having a positive culture showed any sign of sepsis. Our data suggest that reusing plastic syringes is not associated with an increase in the incidence of bacterial contamination. However, contamination of the syringes by patients' blood, with the risk of cross-infections, remains a possibility and further studies are needed to evaluate this potential hazard.