Microbiological profile and air quality indoor effects in the operation theatres of a tertiary care hospital: an ımpact on disease burden."

An operation theatre (OT) is a very complex setup, which presents numerous challenges for both patients and health care providers. A safe OT environment decreases the susceptibility of patients to postoperative infections. The microbiological profile and bacterial colonization and the microbial contamination of air quality indoor effects in the operating theatres of a tertiary care hospital were studied. Bacterial species in the OTs were isolated and identified by standard conventional methods. Air quality surveillance of OTs was done by settle plate method. A total of 342 samples were collected from surfaces, articles and of the various OTs. Out of these, 32 (9.3%), samples showed bacterial growth. The predominant species isolated was Aerobic spore forming bacilli 20 (62%) followed by Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CONS) with 8 (25%) isolates followed by 3 (89.3%) Micrococcus species and one (3.1%) Methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus were isolated. Analysis of the OTs air samples showed the least colony forming unit (cfu) rate of air (27cfu/m3) in ophthalmology OT and the highest rate of 133 cfu/m3 in general surgery OT was very high. The study shows that the frequent use of OTs, traffic is more, more patient load and infrequent cleaning between surgeries can cause high CFU counts.