Operating Room Fires Anesthesiology

Oxygen served as the oxidizer in 95 of electrocautery induced or fires 84 with open delivery system.

Operating room fires anesthesiology.

1 from the departments of surgery t s j t n r e l j anesthesiology i h b the university of colorado and the denver veterans affairs medical center denver colorado. Practice advisory for the prevention and management of operating room fires. The intended audience is everyone who works in the or during surgery. This document updates the practice advisory for preven tion and management of operating room fires.

4 these fires are typically attributed to increases in oxygen content at the surgical site. Most electrocautery induced fires n 75 81 occurred during monitored anesthesia care. An updated report by the american society of anesthesiologists task force on operating room fires. Prevention and effective management of such fires may present difficulties even for experienced or staff.

With the assistance of ecri institute apsf has produced an 18 minute long video prevention and management of operating room fires which was released in february 2010. Most 85 electrocautery fires occurred during head neck or upper chest procedures high fire risk procedures. Mehta sp bhananker sm posner kl domino kb. This simulation involved a 52 year old man presenting for excisional biopsy of a cervical lymph node to be performed under sedation.

Apfelbaum jl caplan ra barker sj et al. Operating room or fire can be a devastating and costly event to patients and health care providers. Operating room or fire is considered a sentinel event in today s practice of medicine. For the prevention and management of surgical fires.

Fires and explosions in the operating room or have been described since the development of flammable volatile anesthetics. Despite the safety guidelines that are currently in place at most hospitals or fires still occur anywhere from 50 200 times per year. A closed claims analysis. A review of operating room fire claims found that 85 of fires occurred in the head neck or upper chest and 81 of cases occurred with monitored anesthesia care.

Recent literature suggests that there is poor communication and preparedness of the or staff for such events. Prevention and management of operating room fires video.