CANCUN, MEXICO (UroToday.com) - Coverage of the 25th Annual World Congress of Endourology and SWL - Cancun, Mexico - Thursday November 1st 2007

A very important clinical study was presented from Edinburgh, Scotland in which blood splash contamination of eye shields was evaluated during common laparoscopic and endourologic procedures. (Abstract MP20-11) While these techniques are often considered to be “closed” and of minimal risk for splash injuries, these researchers have shown that this is not the case. In fact, splash injuries remain commonplace even with the use of video endoscopic equipment. They found that almost half of surgeons’ masks, and one third of assisting surgeons’ masks and scrub nurse masks were positive for either visible or visually enhanced blood contaminations following laparoscopic or endourologic procedures. In addition, evidence of blood splash occurred in 84% of laparoscopic nephrectomies, 67% of pyeloplasties and 58 % of flexible ureteroscopy procedures. These observations should heighten and broaden the precautionary use of protective eye and face wear in the minimally invasive surgery suites.

Session: Education / Simulators I
Moderators: Elspeth M. McDougall (USA), Tadashi Matsuda (Japan)
Michael Wines, Alistair Lamb, Athanasios Argyropoulos, Michael Nomikos, Alex Caviezel, David Tolley

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Written by Elspeth M. McDougall, MD, a Contributing Editor with UroToday.

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