The concept of the golden patient (GP) was introduced to our busy teaching district general hospital, in April 2009, to improve trauma theatre start times following disappointing results from a previous in-hospital study. The GP is a pre-selected first patient on the following day trauma list who is medically fit with a clear surgical plan. The GP should have already been seen by an anaesthetist and be ready to be sent for by theatres early. It has been shown by others to improve operation start times and could be used to improve trauma services and meet clinical targets more readily. This prospective study involved the collection of planned trauma lists with the designated GP over November and December 2009. Data was collected from the theatre logbooks, including patient demographics, theatre reception, anaesthetic and operation start times. This was compared with the pre-GP data (January and February 2009). Graphs showing the comparative mean start times between pre-GP and GP trauma lists, including the 95% confidence interval for the population mean were created. A two sample T test was used to evaluate significance between groups.Introduction
Methods
Sterile Surgical Helmet System (SSHS) are used routinely in hip and knee arthroplasty in order to decrease the risk of infection. It protects surgeon from splash and also prevents contamination of surgical field from reverse splash by virtue of its perceived sterility. A prospective study was conducted to confirm if SSHS remain sterile throughout the procedure in Hip (THA) and Knee (TKA) Arthroplasty. We also evaluated if type of theatre had any effect on degree of contamination. Visor area of 40 SSHS was swabbed at half hourly interval until the end of the procedure. Two groups of 20 each were made on the basis of theatre used for performing surgery. Group 1 (Gp1) had surgery performed in laminar flow and Group 2 (Gp2) in non-laminar flow theatre. Swabs collected were processed to compare the time dependent contamination of the SSHS and identify the organisms responsible for contamination.Background
Material and Methods
