Surgeons and staff are routinely exposed to smoke, plume and aerosols produced by instruments used to dissect tissue and provide haemostasis. Long-term effects remain relatively unclear warns Tim Christopher, marketing manager at Single Use Surgical, however, the need still remains for a proactive approach to reduce potential exposures.
Research indicates surgical smoke is a significant chemical and biological hazard and has shown to be as mutagenic as cigarette smoke1. Often referred to as cautery smoke, diathermy plume or smoke plume, the term ‘surgical smoke’ describes the by-products of combustion that are a chemical hazard.
The heat of a cutting diathermy causes intracellular water to boil, cells to be ablated and tissues destroyed, creating surgical smoke, which consists of 95% water vapour and 5% combustion by-products and cellular debris.2 It is the latter that represents a chemical and biological hazard to patients and clinicians.2
cSurgical smoke can be both seen and smelled, and is typically created by instruments and devices including lasers, electrosurgical units, cautery units and highspeed drills, burrs and saws. Electrosurgery units which use high-frequency current to cut and coagulate tissue are the most common at forming surgical smoke plume followed by lasers.1
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