Low levels of air turbulence can be important for a successful operation. | Image: Halfdark/Getty Images

Despite the hygiene measures undertaken in operating theatres, bacteria can sometimes enter a wound through the air. A nationwide study of more than 160,000 operations in 182 ORs in Switzerland has been investigating the role played by the turbulence resulting from ventilation systems. It has found that when the air flow is less turbulent (i.e., when the flow is ‘laminar’), significantly fewer infections occur after orthopaedic surgery and heart operations. By adjusting ventilation systems, many wound infections might be avoided, says Bernard Surial, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Inselspital in Bern.

B. Surial et al.: Better Operating Room Ventilation as Determined by a Novel Ventilation Index is Associated with Lower Rates of Surgical Site Infections. Annals of Surgery (2022)

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