Ophthalmology operating room standards and infection control concerns

Postoperative infection is a rare complication of intraocular surgery. Although the incidence is low, the morbidity is high in terms of long-term sequelae. Because some ophthalmologists have requested separate operating rooms to reduce the risk of exogenous sources of infection, ophthalmology training program directors were surveyed to determine national standards of practice. Among the 100 centers responding, most were university affiliated (73%), had more than 500-bed hospitals (67%), and had fewer than 50 practicing ophthalmologists (92%). A single operating room was used in 50 centers and only 33 did not permit nonophthalmology cases in the ophthalmology operating rooms. Centers with a greater ophthalmology volume did not differ from low-volume centers in the scheduling of ophthalmology and nonopthalmology clean or infected cases. Program directors from larger centers, however, were more frequently of the opinion that a separate ophthalmology operating room was needed: 86.2% vs. 63.5% (p = 0.04).