Is ortho dangerous?

[yowhassupdude]

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In ortho, there seem to be a lot of hazards in the OR

A single case can involve a lot of exposure to fluoro.....x-ray!!
Fumes from the cement cannot be good for your brain health
MMMM, the fresh smell of electrocautery in the morning
MMMM, the fresh smell of bone debris in the afternoon

Do you think that long-term exposure to anything in the OR is dangerous?

 

[TxMed]

In ortho, there seem to be a lot of hazards in the OR

A single case can involve a lot of exposure to fluoro.....x-ray!!
Fumes from the cement cannot be good for your brain health
MMMM, the fresh smell of electrocautery in the morning
MMMM, the fresh smell of bone debris in the afternoon

Do you think that long-term exposure to anything in the OR is dangerous?

if you're worried about radiation, wear some lead. i'm pretty sure that the surgical mask is gonna keep you from smelling "most" things and it will also filter most of the fumes (if any) out. i would say you have a greater chance of getting beat-up by an orthopod than being injured as a result of being one.

tm

 

[Jonassen]

Don't go into Radiology. All day sitting in a dim room, makes Jack a sedentary Vitamin-D deficient boy.

 

[Wahoos]

The only other high risk of being a ortho resident in the OR is getting stuck / cut by either a sharp fractured piece of bone that you had to reduce but can't see, getting cut by a K wire that you are drilling, or getting splattered in the eye with bone dust / blood / tissue if you don't have good eye protection, etc, etc. I would say on the average, everyone who has done a Ortho residency will get stuck several times. I know quite a few people that have taken the HIV medication after being stuck with a needle or cut in the OR, plus mult blood tests afterwards. One of the attendings in my program has Hep C from one OR accident many years back. Personally, I have been stuck by a IV needle, burned through the gown by the Bovie, and stuck by a suture needle, also been splattered in the face with blood or bone dust, all in just one year......

So there is always a risk being an orthopod or any kind of surgeon.

 

[Jonassen]

From Johns Hopkins Medicine site:

While the incidence of disease from HIV and hepatitis is increasing in the United States, little is known about their prevalence in patients undergoing surgery. Now, researchers have shown that nearly 40 percent of surgeries at The Johns Hopkins Hospital occur in patients who tested positive for a bloodborne germ.

Previous studies have shown that health care workers are injured in about 7 percent of operations. As many as 87 percent of surgeons will receive an injury that breaks the skin -- thus allowing for possible disease transmission - at some point in their career.

The researchers also found that the operations associated with the greatest risk of infection - lymph-node biopsy, soft-tissue-mass excision and abscess-drainage cases - were often assigned to the most inexperienced surgeons-in-training, placing them at greatest risk.

The researchers found that 38 percent of all operations involved a bloodborne pathogen, and almost half (47 percent) of all men tested positive for at least one infection. HIV accounted for 26 percent of infections, hepatitis B for 4 percent, hepatitis C for 35 percent, and co-infection with HIV and hepatitis C accounted for 17 percent of infections. In addition, bloodborne pathogen infection was found in up to 65 percent of patients with a history of intravenous drug use and in as many as 71 percent of patients undergoing a soft-tissue abscess procedure or lymph-node biopsy.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/05_04_05.html

Are cloth gloves worn with latex gloves for some operations to avoid blood exposure?

Does pre-operative HIV or Hep C testing exist? Or is that against certain privacy laws? It obviously cannot work in the ER.

How prevalent are the newer "sharpless surgical techniques" (laparoscopy, electrocautery to replace scalpel incisions, and skin clips or glue)?

 

[TxMed]

Are cloth gloves worn with latex gloves for some operations to avoid blood exposure?

Does pre-operative HIV or Hep C testing exist? Or is that against certain privacy laws? It obviously cannot work in the ER.

How prevalent are the newer "sharpless surgical techniques" (laparoscopy, electrocautery to replace scalpel incisions, and skin clips or glue)?

i'm gonna say no to the cloth gloves idea. wouldn't be so helpful with that whole manual dexterity thing. you will be using the utmost caution with any patient regardless of the HIV or Hep status. as far as "sharpless" stuff...well, you always have to make the first cut. if you're that worried about these things, then i don't think the profession that includes bonesaws is for you. no matter what kind of doctor you are you WILL get needle sticks. it is just a fact of life.

if you have this many worries as a pre-med student than medical school might not be for you. but, just so you know, you're more likely to get HIV or HepC out in the real world than in the hospital.

tm

 

[Jonassen]

i'm gonna say no to the cloth gloves idea. wouldn't be so helpful with that whole manual dexterity thing. you will be using the utmost caution with any patient regardless of the HIV or Hep status. as far as "sharpless" stuff...well, you always have to make the first cut. if you're that worried about these things, then i don't think the profession that includes bonesaws is for you. no matter what kind of doctor you are you WILL get needle sticks. it is just a fact of life.

if you have this many worries as a pre-med student than medical school might not be for you. but, just so you know, you're more likely to get HIV or HepC out in the real world than in the hospital.

tm

Hehe, no, I'm not particularly worried (I work at an AIDS clinic in south side Chicago), but thanks for your concern. I mainly wanted to see if there's any trend to ensuring that needle sticks and accidental exposures become LESS common, rather than just shrugging it off as "a fact of life." Your post confirmed the latter.

And I have a feeling diagnostic radiologists don't get needle sticks that often (past first year of residency).

 

[TxMed]

Hehe, no, I'm not particularly worried (I work at an AIDS clinic in south side Chicago), but thanks for your concern. I mainly wanted to see if there's any trend to ensuring that needle sticks and accidental exposures become LESS common, rather than just shrugging it off as "a fact of life." Your post confirmed the latter.

And I have a feeling diagnostic radiologists don't get needle sticks that often (past first year of residency).

diagnostic radiologists do more procedures than you think. but, that's an issue for a different board.

tm

 

[Scooby Doo]

if you have this many worries as a pre-med student than medical school might not be for you. but, just so you know, you're more likely to get HIV or HepC out in the real world than in the hospital.

tm

Having worries does not make a person not "medical school material". There are plenty of med student/surgeons/psychiatrists/etc who are all germaphobes. Especially when you see some of the crazy shiznit that people get, makes you think extra hard.


Highly highly doubt that you are more likely to get HIV or HepC in the "real world" than in the hospital ...unless you are a Vegas prostitute or something.

There is nothing more intimate than cutting the skin of a patient. Each patient you operate on, consider your gloves/mask/etc to be your condom.