Operating Room Fires Anesthesiology

Prevention and management of operating room fires video.

Operating room fires anesthesiology.

Most electrocautery induced fires n 75 81 occurred during monitored anesthesia care. For the prevention and management of surgical fires. Operating room or fire is considered a sentinel event in today s practice of medicine. The intended audience is everyone who works in the or during surgery.

According to the anesthesia patient safety foundation hundreds of fires occur in the united states yearly 1the majority of fires occur during head and neck surgery due to the presence of oxygen and the extensive use of lasers 2surgical fires can be prevented by educating staff about risk and prevention strategies. Despite the safety guidelines that are currently in place at most hospitals or fires still occur anywhere from 50 200 times per year. 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.

Recent literature suggests that there is poor communication and preparedness of the or staff for such events. Fires and explosions in the operating room or have been described since the development of flammable volatile anesthetics. Oxygen served as the oxidizer in 95 of electrocautery induced or fires 84 with open delivery system. Mehta sp bhananker sm posner kl domino kb.

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. 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. Practice advisory for the prevention and management of operating room fires.

An updated report by the american society of anesthesiologists task force on operating room fires. 4 these fires are typically attributed to increases in oxygen content at the surgical site. This document updates the practice advisory for preven tion and management of operating room fires. A report by the american society of anesthesiologists task force on operating room fires adopted by the asa in 2007 and published in 2008.

Operating room fires are rare but devastating events. A closed claims analysis.