Guidelines in Practice: Surgical Smoke Safety

Surgical smoke is the vaporous and gaseous byproduct of the use of heat-producing devices on tissue. The contents of surgical smoke include harmful chemicals, viable and nonviable material, and viruses. Personnel and patients experience an unpleasant odor when smoke is not evacuated and risk developing symptoms, such as headaches, throat irritation, and dizziness. The recently updated AORN "Guideline for surgical smoke safety" provides perioperative nurses with background information on surgical smoke and ways to mitigate the hazard. This article provides an overview of the guideline and discusses recommendations for a smoke-free environment, smoke evacuation and filtration, respiratory protection, education, policies and procedures, and quality. It also includes scenarios describing specific concerns in two patient care areas. Perioperative nurses should review the guideline in its entirety and apply the recommendations to protect personnel and patients from the dangers of surgical smoke.