Do 'Surgical Helmet Systems' or 'Body Exhaust Suits' Affect Contamination and Deep Infection Rates in Arthroplasty? A Systematic Review

J Arthroplasty. 2016 Jan;31(1):225-33. doi: 10.1016/j.arth.2015.07.043. Epub 2015 Aug 1.

Abstract

This systematic review examined whether negative-pressure Charnley-type body exhaust suits (BES) or modern positive-pressure surgical helmet systems (SHS) reduce deep infection rates and/or contamination in arthroplasty. For deep infection, four studies (3990 patients) gave adjusted relative risk for deep infection of 0.11 (P = 0.09) against SHS. Five of 7 (71%) studies found less air contamination and 2 of 4 studies (50%) less wound contamination with BES. One of 4 (25%) found less air contamination with SHS and 0 of 1 (0%) less wound contamination. In contrast to BES, modern SHS designs were not shown to reduce contamination or deep infection during arthroplasty.

Keywords: arthroplasty; body exhaust suits; contamination; infection; space suits; surgical helmet systems.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants
  • Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / instrumentation
  • Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip / methods*
  • Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / instrumentation
  • Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / methods*
  • Cross Infection / microbiology
  • Cross Infection / prevention & control*
  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient / prevention & control*
  • Intraoperative Complications / microbiology*
  • Operating Rooms
  • Protective Clothing*
  • Risk
  • Surgical Wound Infection / prevention & control*

Substances

  • Air Pollutants