[Working in the Operating Theatre - What does the Surgeon Need to Know About Occupational Medicine?]

Surgery is associated with numerous health hazards for the staff.The aim of this article is to show the risks to the health and ability to work of surgical staff and the possibilities for improving occupational health and safety in terms of behavioural and situational prevention, as well as secondary and tertiary prevention, especially with regard to cooperation with the occupational physician.The brief narrative overview is based on the author's own occupational medicine, surgery and interdisciplinary experience from daily practice and selective references from the current medical-scientific literature, using the example of the operating theatre work area.The possible activity-related health hazards and the risks to the working ability of medical staff as well as the possibilities for occupational health and safety in the sense of behavioural and situational prevention are an important matter in the interdisciplinary status of surgery that should not be underestimated (since it is also partly determined by law). Above all, this discipline must responsibly dedicate itself to the points of contact with occupational medicine (in addition to acquiring its own knowledge from the surgical side).