TY - BOOK AU - Steinberg, John S TI - Glove and instrument changing to prevent bacterial contamination in infected wound debridement and closure procedures: A prospective observational study SN - 1742-4801 PY - 2021/// KW - IN PROCESS -- NOT YET INDEXED KW - MedStar Washington Hospital Center KW - Surgery/Podiatric Surgery KW - Journal Article N2 - Many surgeons use a single table of instruments for both excisional debridement and coverage/closure of infected wounds. This study investigates the effectiveness of a two-table set-up of sterile instruments, in addition to glove exchange, to reduce instrument cross-contamination during these procedures. This is a prospective, single-site, institutional review board-approved observational study of surgical debridements of infected wounds over a 17-month period. Two separate sterile surgical tables were used for each case: Table A for initial wound debridement (debridement set-up) and Table B for wound coverage/closure (clean set-up). Swabs of each table and its respective instruments were taken after debridement but prior to coverage/closure. The primary outcome of interest was bacterial growth at 48 hours. There were 72 surgical cases included in this study. Culture results of Table A demonstrated bacterial growth in 23 of 72 (32%) cases at 48 hours compared with 5of 72 (7%) from Table B (P = .001). These data suggest that there is significant bacterial contamination of surgical instruments used for debridement of infected wounds. Use of a two-table set-up reduced instrument cross-contamination by 78%, suggesting avoidable re-contamination of the wound. Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc (3M) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd UR - https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/iwj.13568 ER -