Are there any infection prevention risk minimisation strategies that need to be discussed with the anaesthetic or surgical team? Give rationales for your answer
Yuling Zhang, 35 years old, has arrived in your perioperative unit and is booked in for a lower segment caesarean section. Her medical history indicates she has hepatitis B. She has no known allergies and weighs 87 kg.
What will be an ideal response?
Answers/Rationales:
Ensure antibiotics are administered 30 minutes prior to the surgical incision to facilitate therapeutic level at the tissues when the incision is made.
All blood and body fluids should be treated as potentially infectious as per standard precautions and safety strategies put in place to minimise risk of contact with blood or body fluids, including:
Safety cannula/retractable safety devices should be used for all patients to minimise risk of needle-stick injury.
Double-gloving for all surgical cases is recommended to minimise the amount of blood on needles that may be transferred if a needle-stick injury occurs.
Ensure sharps are passed only in a puncture-proof container, not by hand, to reduce the risk of sharps injury.
Consider the use of blunt suture needles to minimise the risk of sharps injury.
Skin clips or subcuticular absorbable sutures are recommended to minimise the use of needles while suturing a wound. Absorbable sutures do not need to be removed and so reduce the risk of sharps injury during the removal procedure.
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