Measurement and Control of Surgical Smoke to Enhance Surgical Team Safety

Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 era, concern about the safety of surgical teams related to surgical smoke (SS) is rising. As simple ventilation improvement methods (SVIMs), we replaced 4 of the 8 supply diffusers with a direction-adjustable louver-type, closed 2 of the 4 exhaust grills, and strengthened the sealing of the doorway. Dynamic changes in the concentration of particulate matter (PM) with sizes of < 1.0 μm (PM1.0) were measured using low-cost PM meters (LCPMs) at eight locations in the operating room (OR). SS concentration up to 4 minutes at the location of the surgeon, first assistant, and scrub nurse before and after SVIMs application decreased from 65.4, 38.2, 35.7 µg/m³ to 9.5, 0.1 and 0.7 µg/m³ respectively. A similar decrease was observed in the other 5 locations. SVIMs could effectively control SS and the LCPM was also effective in measuring SS in the OR or other spaces of the hospital.