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Difficult Airways - April 2015 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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goes on during passing depends on the experience of the surgeon and his assistants. Pairings that have worked together for years may not have to alert each other about sharps entering and leaving the field. The bottom line: Develop a system that works for your surgical teams, agree on where and how instruments will be passed before each case, and stick to the protocol during every sharps exchange. 4 Pay attention Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is, but I've seen many surgical assistants try to do more than one thing at a time, lose focus and take their eyes off of the sharp being passed. Surgeons and surgi- cal assistants are at the highest risk of sticks and cuts, and it's hard to predict what causes sharps injuries, but most often it involves some- 8 6 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | A P R I L 2 0 1 5 S yringes are often used intraoperative- ly to inject local anesthetic at the surgical site. Best practice is to avoid recapping the nee- dles between uses by plac- ing syringes in basins on the back table, where they're kept safely until needed again. Try this if you do have to recap a needle: Touch its bevel to the inside of the cap and scoop the cap onto the needle before pushing it securely into place. Never attempt to hold the cap in one hand and place the needle in it with the other. — Sherri Alexander, CST, FAST, CRCST NEEDLE RECAPPING Master the Single-Handed Scoop

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