Infection Control in the Operation Room Environment in India

Purpose: In this study the infection control practices in Guru Nanak Eye Care (GNEC) have been critically evaluated.

Methods: Guru Nanak Eye Centre is a tertiary care hospital which handles 1,94,000 patients attending the OPD in a year. An average of 10,000 surgeries were performed every year. Given the large daily turnover rate in the OT, maintaining a clean environment is a continuous challenge for the theatre staff and the infection control team. In the paper we have tried to analyse the work load, population, patients profile and the effectiveness of our infection control procedure over a period of one year.

Results: It was noted that the bacterial counts increased from no growth/< 1 cfu/ml/min immediately post fumigation levels to 6/25 cfu/ml/min in an average of one to one and half months period. In the months of October, December and January there were low colony counts at an average of 5-6 cfu/ml/min. Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus, S. aureus and Aerobic spore bearers were isolated the whole year round. In the month of February, fungus especially aspergillus was isolated.

Conclusion: It is recommended that in ophthalmic operation theaters there should be a decrease in the number of surgeries to be carried out as the patients themselves contributed to the increased air borne bacterial count.