Contamination risks from a high-speed bone burr

The authors recorded the contamination rate at a mock surgical site below a high-speed burr creating debris from a fresh-frozen allograft specimen.

To document possible contamination rates associated with high-speed burr use.

The literature contained no studies addressing a known rate of contamination from high-speed burr use.

Samples of debris were collected in a mock-up of an operation involving bone burring. Set distances were maintained between objects within the field. High-speed bone burring was performed on fresh-frozen allograft bone specimens, and falling debris was collected on sterile culture plates. Control specimens were obtained randomly. Two hundred test and 20 control samples were collected by means of standard sterile techniques.

Thirty-five percent of the cultured specimens from the test group grew skin flora, compared with 10% from the control group (P = 0.02).

The authors propose that the higher contamination rate in the experimental samples resulted from airborne bone chips striking nonsterile surfaces before landing on the culture plates. Such contamination may increase the risk of wound infection.