Surgical smoke and its implications for operating room personnel

Abstract

Background: Use in various surgical procedures of the electrosurgical unit, laser devices, and ultrasonic scalpels allow rapid cutting and coagulation in blood vessels. It has disadvantages for the patient and for the surgical team, especially for health professionals who spend most of their time working in operating rooms. Exposure can be affected the ocular mucosa, nasal, upper and lower respiratory tract. Effect is directly proportional to the exposure time and can be observed in the medium and long term.
Objective: To describe toxic substances derived from electrosurgical surgical smoke in interaction with human tissue, how they affect health personnel and what controls can be applied from safety and health at work.
Reflection: Gases such as benzene, formaldehyde, and blood cell fragments, bacteria and viruses that are volatilized by this technique. Affect the exposed individual in different ways, either as an irritant of the respiratory tract or producing changes at the cellular level that can cause hyperplasias o cellular metaplasias. There are insufficient control measures in their designs and implementation due to costs, comfort, and staff performance, in addition to no regulations and very few studies that allow us to recognize the problem and generate adequate control measures.
Conclusions: Surgical smoke must be a risk factor widely known by the personnel of the operating rooms and it must be intervened. Their health effects should be further investigated, and regulations be created to reduce the effects of their exposure.