Efficacy of a Novel Intraoperative Engineered Sharps Injury Prevention Device: Pilot Usability and Efficacy Trial.

BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons reports 88,320 intraoperative needlestick injuries (NSIs) per year, resulting in US $376 to US $2456 in costs per NSI. Engineered sharps injury prevention (ESIP) devices protect against NSIs. To our knowledge, no study has been published to date to demonstrate clinical effectiveness of an intraoperative ESIP device. Operative Armour is a wearable arm cuff that can be donned during surgical closure to allow surgeons to keep a suture pack and sharps protection container on their forearm. OBJECTIVE: We characterize Operative Armour's ESIP device effectiveness in a tertiary hospital, hypothesizing that this device will decrease NSI risk by decreasing behaviors associated with NSIs: needle passing and handling. METHODS: A prospective case-control study was conducted with institutional review board quality improvement designation in which authors observed skin closures of plastic surgery procedures. To ensure accuracy, one surgeon was observed at a time. Control surgeries were purely observational; intervention cases involved surgeon use of the device during skin closure. Outcomes of interest included needle passing, needle handling, lost needles, and loaded waiting needles. RESULTS: Surgeons were observed in 50 control and 50 intervention cases. Operative Armour eliminated needle passing during skin closure. One NSI occurred in one control case; no NSIs were observed in intervention cases (P=.36). The mean number of loaded and unprotected waiting needles was also significantly decreased in the intervention group from 2.3 to 0.2 (P<.001). Furthermore, a multivariable linear regression established that Operative Armour significantly decreased the number of needle adjustments by hand per stitch observed (F4, 21.68=3.72; P=.01). In fact, needle adjustments by hand decreased overall (1 adjustment per 10 stitches vs 1 adjustment per 5 stitches, P=.004), and adjustments occurred half as frequently with use of Operative Armour in free flap reconstruction (1 adjustment per 10 stitches vs 1 adjustment per 5 stitches, P=.03) and a quarter as frequently in other breast reconstruction cases such as mastopexy (1 adjustment per 20 stitches vs 1 adjustment per 5 stitches, P=.002). CONCLUSIONS: Operative Armour effectively functions as an ESIP device by decreasing intraoperative needle passing and handling. Although sample size prohibits demonstrating a decrease in NSIs during observed cases, by decreasing behaviors that drive NSI risk, we anticipate an associated decrease in NSIs with use of the device.

CASE REPORT Spontaneous Forearm Compartment Syndrome in a Boy With Hemophilia A: A Therapeutic Dilemma.

OBJECTIVE: We present the case of a 14-year-old Factor VIII-deficient patient with no history of trauma, who developed acute spontaneous compartment syndrome of the volar forearm. We also suggest a treatment strategy. METHODS: Fasciotomy with hematoma evacuation and ipsilateral carpal tunnel release was performed, and the wound was closed with vascular loops in "Jacob's ladder" fashion. Factor infusions were continued overnight. RESULTS: The volar forearm compartment was successfully decompressed, and the patient's coagulopathy was managed with appropriate clotting factors. CONCLUSIONS: Hemophilic patients warrant special consideration and multispecialty care; with replenished coagulation factors and timely surgical decompression, they can expect satisfactory recovery of muscular and neurological function.

Strauch's technique for epigastric free flaps in rats revisited: a simple and effective method to increase patency rates.

Described by Strauch and Murray in 1967, the rodent epigastric free flap remains a versatile tool for microsurgery research and training. We report herein three sequential phases of our quest to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the original technique, making it more accessible to more microsurgeons. Ninety-six allotransplants were performed. Surgical technique, complication rates, clinical findings, and histopathologic correlation of each phase are reported. In phase I, two experienced microsurgeons employed the original technique and succeeded in 77% of the procedures. In phase II, two junior microsurgeons achieved a patency rate of 16.6% using the same technique, as opposed to 100% in phase III, utilizing the not-yet-described simplified flow-thru technique. Although patency rate using the original method varies from 9 to 78% (according to other reports), this technical modification can increase even the less experienced microsurgeons' success rates, perpetuating the use of Strauch's epigastric flap in experimental microsurgery.