BJO at a glance
SHOULD WE CONTINUE USING SURGICAL FACEMASKS?
Eight years ago shoe coverings for the operating rooms at the University of California San Francisco, where I work, were removed from the operating rooms after a large study showed that wearing shoe covers during surgery had no effect on the postoperative infection rate. Many older surgeons at our hospital still find it difficult to enter the operating room without shoe covers despite the evidence of their ineffectiveness. Alwitry et al ask the question whether surgical facemasks are necessary during cataract surgery. In a relatively small investigation of 221 patients the authors studied bacterial growth on blood agar settle plates adjacent to the patient's head during cataract surgery. They documented that there were significantly fewer organisms cultured when the surgeon used a facemask. Since there were no cases of infectious complications they were unable to address the problem of whether or not this increase in organisms detected in …
