Surgical blood exposures after the OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard: frequency and prevention

1. Approximately 22.4 million surgical procedures are performed annually in US hospitals. Up to 2,688,000 personnel exposures to blood may occur annually. Punctures would account for 349,940 (13%) of those exposures, and 38,493 patients would have contact with blood from the punctured personnel. 2. Epidemiologists use parameters of time, place, and person to describe situations and identify prevention strategies: who is at increased risk, what devices and activities lead to more frequent exposures, when exposure frequency is greatest, and where blood contact actually occurs. The answers to these questions form the basis for successful prevention; without the correct answers operating rooms either miss the target or spend far too much money preventing low-risk events. 3. OSHA and previous researchers estimated that a substantial portion of blood exposures could be prevented by either changing certain practices such as passing loaded suture holders, or by protective attire such as fluid-resistant gowns.