Latest Laminar Disruption Evidence -- Stunning

Here is yet more clear evidence from the Northumbria orthopedic team, of forced-air warming units disrupting protective laminar flow ventilation. The tracer bubbles are neutrally buoyant, which is to say they follow the air currents of the room. Notice the laminar flow working properly with conductive fabric warming. Then watch the stunning evidence of forced-air waste heat mobilizing air from the dirty floor and sending it right up into the surgical site, contaminating it. The evidence speaks for itself: as hot air rises, so does risk.

The Northumbria orthopedic team has set up their own blog to show their findings. With patient safety in mind, they have compiled excellent research and the visual evidence is stunning. To access their blog, click on the following link: www.northumbriaorthopaedics.blogspot.com

More Evidence of Forced-Air Disrupting Protective Laminar Flow

Here is more clear evidence from the Northumbria orthopedic team, of forced-air warming units disrupting protective laminar flow ventilation. As you can see in the video, the addition of normal operating room factors like operating lights, and even an anesthetist, can increase the negative impact of forced-air blowers on proper laminar flow.

This evidence begs the question: should normal operating room procedures be held captive by the fickle whims of the waste heat air currents from forced-air warming units? Now there is an alternative. Free your operating room, replace the forced-air warming units: with non-disruptive, air-free conductive fabric warming.

The Northumbria orthopedic team has set up their own blog to show their findings. With patient safety in mind, they have compiled excellent research and the visual evidence is stunning. To access their blog, click on the following link: www.northumbriaorthopaedics.blogspot.com

Laminar Disruption: Forced-Air Compared to Conductive Fabric Warming

The orthopedic team at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust in the UK has shown a great interest in the effects of air movement in laminar flow operating environments. In orthopedics, airborne contamination is a primary concern, given the susceptibility of implantables to sepsis. The Northumbria orthopedic team spends vast sums of money on protective laminar flow ventilation systems and personal isolation "space suits" for this very reason. With the primary goals of providing better care to patients and improving patient safety, the Northumbria orthopedic team set out to investigate and eliminate potential sources of infection.

After testing different forms of positioning and draping, they investigated the equipment in their operating room. Forced-air warming equipment, with its disruptive air flow and vast wattage output, was a natural object of concern. Their findings were quite shocking.

This video, produced by the Northumbria orthopedic team, shows the disruptive effect of forced-air equipment on protective laminar flow, using neutral-buoyancy helium bubbles to show air currents. As a control, the team tested conductive fabric warming blankets as well. The video evidence is quite clear: forced-air, in a normal operating room setting, disrupts laminar flow. Conductive fabric warming does not. Prudence, and good sense, dictates that these findings be taken into consideration when choosing between forced-air and conductive fabric warming systems.

The Northumbria orthopedic team has set up their own blog to show their findings. With patient safety in mind, they have compiled excellent research and the visual evidence is stunning. To access their blog, click on the following link: www.northumbriaorthopaedics.blogspot.com

Hot Air Disrupts the Protection of Laminar Flow

Watch the Video about Laminar Flow Disruption by Forced-air Warming



Please watch the video. It is honest, unaltered footage taken in a simulated OR of laminar flow ventilation being disrupted by forced-air warming. What you will see is physics at work.

The physics is simple: heat rises! After passing over the patient’s skin and dropping near the dirty floor, the waste hot air rises--overpowering the ultra- clean downward air current of laminar flow-- and then, having cooled, falls into the surgical site.

Reducing surgical site infections (SSIs) is of the highest priority for hospitals, insurance companies, and national health initiatives. Not to mention patients and their families.

Providing an ultra clean surgical environment with laminar flow has become the standard of care because it helps reduce hospital acquired infections. A study cited by the Centers for Disease Control revealed a reduction in SSIs from 3.4% to 1.6% merely as a result of laminar flow.

Warming surgical patients, of course, is also the standard of care. Normothermic patients are far less likely to acquire a post-operative wound infection—64% less likely by one study (Mahoney, AANA J, 1999)—than those who aren’t warmed. The device used to warm patients, however, should not increase the risk of bacterial contamination.

Fortunately, there is an [air-free] alternative. HotDog® conductive fabric warms as effectively as forced air, but is safe, eco-friendly, and much less expensive.

We encourage you to conduct the simple test detailed at the end of the video to prove that the forced-air exhaust heat rises in your operating room. Of course, it will. Hot air always rises.

We want to hear your comments about hot air and its effects on laminar flow. Your thoughts and knowledge are important to us.