1. Temperature. Cooling vests and gowns lower the body tempera-
ture and tension levels of overheated surgeons and staff.
Jill Byrne, MSN, RN, CNOR, an OR nurse at Cleveland Clinic and a
doctoral student at Case Western Reserve University, took it upon her-
self to invent a surgical cooling vest.
"I've stood side-by-side with overheated surgeons struggling every
day to provide the best patient care possible," says Ms. Byrne, who's
partnered with Cardinal Health to market her CoolSource Cooling
System. "This sparked my pursuit to create an intuitive solution — a
cooling vest — to help them stay focused. Beyond performance alone,
it has been inspiring to witness the positive impact on OR civility due
to improved comfort with the vest."
On the other side of the climate spectrum, staffers who are shiver-
ing from the mid-60s OR temps can wear heated garments that use
batteries or electric hookups.
2. Fatigue. Surgical floor mats are an economical way to make
standing a bit more comfortable. Some also provide suction for high-
fluid procedures, addressing a couple issues at once.
David A. Abrutyn, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Summit Medical
Group Orthopedics in Berkeley Heights, N.J., focuses on sports medi-
cine, so he does a lot of "wet case" procedures such as ACLs and rota-
tor cuffs. He's been standing on single-use suction mats for 7 years,
and he says they've proven very beneficial, both in terms of his per-
sonal comfort and in keeping the floor dry and clear of cloths.
"If you do 6, 7 cases a day, and you can stand on something that's
more ergonomic, padded and comfortable, that's better than standing
on a hard floor," he says. "And the suction really facilitates with
turnover time, because it reduces cleanup after cases and reduces risk
of cross contamination."
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