Less Hospital Infections with a mobile laminar airflow system
Released on: November 2, 2007, 8:16 am
Press Release Author: Andreas Kunze
Industry: Healthcare
Press Release Summary: To fight against hospital infections and the more and more resistant bacteria's it has been developed a mobile laminar airflow. Laminar airflow systems has been used for many years in the operating rooms and have shown a significant reduction of surgical site infection.
Press Release Body: During moderate physical activity, every person sheds approximately 1000 bacteria carrying skin scales per minute! The more active the person is the more he / she sheds the bacteria carrying particles. The areas pumping most bacteria colonies in the air around a living human body are the neck, the arm pits, and the loins. Living bacteria can travel in the air as colonies only, an individual bacterium is too small to survive in the air. The bacteria carrying skin scales are small, mean size is 12 micros ( one micro is one thousandth of a millimeter). They sediment as an invisible dust on all objects in the room where people are staying. If any bacteria are present in the operation wound, and most often these bacteria are the skin bacteria, they hurry to get hold on the prosthesis surface too. Thus there develops a race - who will be first to colonize the surface, bacteria or body\'s cells. By the long biological development, the bacteria evolved the capability to adhere to surfaces for their survival, not only on the human body, but everywhere in the nature. Bacteria have thus biological advantage against the body\'s cells in this race. Once the bacteria attached themselves to the surface of the prosthesis they form a slime envelope that protects them against the action of antibiotics and the immune defense of the body. Moreover, adherence to a surface also changes the characteristics of the adhering bacteria, among others their resistance to antibiotics increases 100 to 1000 times. The absolute majority of implant infections is caused by bacteria that landed in the operation wound during the total hip joint surgery from the air. The surgeon, his operation team, and the patient are spreading these bacteria continually from the surfaces of their bodies into the air. On modern operation rooms, the whole air volume exchanges 16 to 20 times every hour. The bacteria sailing in the air are swept away, but new bacteria are steadily entering in the air. This is so because the fans produce an uneven stream of clean air with turbulence that mixes the \'old\' dirty air with the \'new\' clean air. Such modern plenum ventilation system produce air that contains about 50 to 150 bacteria / cu meter. How does toul work: Toul laminar air flow is producing a horizontal ultraclean air via Hepa filters (H14)that is protecting the operating area and the instruments from bacteria. All bacteria are swept away by this piston like effect and cannot enter the stream of clean air. The allowed number of bacteria is maximally 10 bacteria / cu meter, in reality it is much lower (0,5 -1 bacteria/ cu meter). The clean air in both systemes is achieved by filtration with highly efficient filters (HEPA filters). These filters remove 99,995% of all particles large than 0,3 microns (1 micron = one thousand of millimetre). Bacteria are about 1 micron large, and skin scales with bacteria about 12 microns large.The frequency of postoperative infections in patients operated on in these super-sterile operation rooms has been very low - less than 0,5 %. http://www.normeditec.com
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