Comparison of 3 C-Arm Draping Techniques to Prevent Far Side Contamination

To assess the effectiveness of reducing contamination using 2 methods of C-Arm draping compared with traditional methods.

The authors simulated an operating room using an extremity drape, commercially available C-Arm drapes, and C-Arm. A black light was placed above the field. A fluorescent powder was placed on the nonsterile portions of the field. Baseline light intensity was recorded by photo. The C-Arm was brought into the surgical field for orthogonal imaging for 15 cycles. A repeat photograph was taken to measure the increase in intensity of the fluorescent powder to assess degree of contamination. This was repeated 5 times for each configuration: standard C-Arm drape, a proprietary close-fitting drape, and a split drape secured to the far side with the split wrapped around the C-Arm receiver. Light intensity difference was measured and average change in intensity was compared.

Compared with standard draping, the proprietary close-fitting drape resulted in a 71.3% decrease in contamination (4.84% vs. 16.90%, P = 0.101) that trended toward significance and the split drape resulted in a 99.5% decrease (0.09% vs. 16.90%, P = 0.017) that was statistically significant.

Far side contamination can be reduced by using a split drape connecting the operative table to the C-Arm receiver, effectively "sealing off" contaminants. The proprietary close-fitting drape may also decrease contamination, but this was not statistically significant in this study. Use of the split drape technique will help prevent contamination and may ultimately lead to decreased infection risk.