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BACTERIAL COLONIZATION IN ORTHOPEDIC SURGICAL TOURNIQUETS: A MULTICENTER STUDY
Eduardo Frois Temponi1, Luiz Lorentz Salzmann Lamego1, Eduardo Louzada da Costa2
1Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais, Hospital Madre Teresa, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.
Objective:
To evaluate the prevalence and microbiological profile of contamination in reusable tourniquets in Brazilian hospitals.
Methods:
A multicenter study conducted in six hospitals. Swabs were collected from 54 tourniquets immediately after surgical use and before disinfection, covering an estimated area of 10 cm². The samples were cultured and identified using automated methods. The microbial load was described by median and interquartile range (IQR), and comparisons between public and private hospitals were performed using Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney test.
Results:
The prevalence of contamination was 70.4% (38/54). The median overall microbial load was 101 CFU per device (IQR: 0-153), corresponding to approximately 10.1 CFU/cm². The predominant microorganisms were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (48.1%) and Staphylococcus aureus (18.5%), with isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus sp., and Candida sp. The contamination rate was 78.6% in public hospitals and 61.5% in private hospitals (p=0.081), with no statistically significant difference in the median bacterial load between the institutions (p=0.412).
Conclusion:
There is a high prevalence of contamination by clinically relevant pathogens in reusable tourniquets, regardless of the type of hospital. The results indicate systemic failures in reprocessing and suggest the need for high-level disinfection protocols or the adoption of disposable sterile devices to mitigate the risk of cross-contamination. Level of evidence III; multicenter cross-sectional study of microbiological prevalence.
