Surgical Flash Fire
Small flash fires can occur in the operating room during surgery where the presence of ignition sources such as electrical instruments or lasers, an oxygen-rich environment, and flammable vapors (e.g. alcohol-based disinfectants) may set the stage for such an accident. While apparently smaller fires go unreported, surgical flash fires have led to burn injuries and fatalities.
Incidents of surgical fires are "significantly under-reported," according to The Joint Commission. More than half of surgical fires happen inside a patient's airway or on the patient's upper body; around 10 percent of surgical fires actually happen within the body cavity; and a quarter of surgical fires happen on other parts of the body. About 70 percent are ignited by electrosurgical tools commonly known as Bovies, devices that use a high-frequency electric current to cut tissue or stop bleeding. Twenty percent of fires are sparked by hot wires, light sources, burrs or defibrillators. Another 10 percent are touched off by lasers.
As far as the patients are concerned, some recover with scars and emotional damage. Some die from burns and smoke inhalation.
Read more about this topic: Flash Fire
Famous quotes containing the words surgical, flash and/or fire:
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—Kenneth Langtry. Herbert L. Strock. Prof. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell)
“New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody’s castle-roof perforated.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)