Contamination of drugs during administration by anesthesiologists

Editor's Note

In this study, researchers found microorganisms with the potential to cause infections being injected into patients during administration of drugs by anesthesiologists during surgical procedures.

The study included 23 anesthesiologists, each anesthetizing up to 25 patients. The anesthesiologists were asked to inject all bolus drugs, except propofol and antibiotics, through a 0.2-µm filter unit.

The researchers isolated microorganisms from filter units in 19 (6.3%) of 300 cases. They also collected used syringes at the end of each case and grew microorganisms from residual drugs in 55 (2.4%) of 2,318 syringes.

The relevance of these findings to postoperative infections warrants further investigation, the authors say.