Abstract
The light handle can be a major source of contamination in operation theatres where surgeries are prolonged and light handles need to be manipulated multiple times. The light handle by sheer size can obstruct laminar flow and cause eddy currents and can cause bacterial deposition on light handle which in turn can contaminate light handles. A study of light handle contamination was done from November 2010 to December 2010 at Blackpool Victoria hospital from swabs taken from light handles during preoperative, intra operative and post operative period from a single laminar flow operating theatre. A total of 40 cases were selected for study. Most of our cases were primary hip and knee replacement. The swabs were cultured into blood agar /mcconkey medium and incubated for 48 hours at 37 degree Celsius. None of the swabs showed any bacterial contamination which shows light handle is not a source of intraoperative contamination. Our trial gives a point estimate of 0% contamination rate, upper limit of the 95% confidence interval of the probability of contamination as 7.5%. we conclude that light handle is not a source of contamination in operation theatres and hence no need to change gloves every time we manipulate light handle.
