Needlestick in UK anaesthetists

Clinical bottom line

Anaesthetists often under-report incidents, and often fail to collect blood samples from themselves or their patients on a routine basis when needlestick injuries occur.

Reference:

HJ Wise, RN McCormick. Re-enforcing hygiene practices of anaesthetists. Anaesthesia 1999 54: 1220-1221.

Study

Postal survey, in 1998, of 75 anaesthetist of various grades in two anaesthetic departments. The response rate was 69%.

Results

The main results are shown in Table 1. Most anaesthetists wore gloves routinely, but three-quarters re-sheathed needles, at least occasionally. Few who had needlestick injuries from hollow bore devices reported the incident or took blood from themselves or their patients.

Table 1: Findings in UK anaesthetists

Topics	Percent
Had HBV immunity checked in previous 5 years	100
Wear gloves routinely	58
Resheath needles on occasion	73
At least one needlestick injury from hollow bore needle	50
of whom blood sample taken after incident for HBV	11
of whom blood sample taken from the patient	22
of whom incident reported to occupational health department	15

Comment

Like other surveys, this shows that professionals often under-report incidents, and often fail to collect blood samples from themselves or their patients on a routine basis when needlestick injuries occur.