Incidence of sharps injuries among surgical staff

Editor's Note

This meta-analysis found that a surgeon will have a sharps injury in about 1 in 10 surgical procedures. Of 45 studies analyzed, the incidence rate was 13.2 sharps injuries per 100 time-units.

Per 100 person-years, the rate was 88.2 for self-reported injuries, 40.0 for perforations, and 5.8 for administrative injuries. Per 100 person-operations, the rate was 2.1 for self-reported injuries, 11.1 for perforations, and 0.1 for administrative injuries.

Regression analysis showed lower incidence rates in studies that used perforations per person-operations.

Reporting of sharps injuries in surgical staff should be standardized per 100 person-operations and assessed in prospective follow-up studies, the researchers concluded.