Impacts of temperature on airborne particles in a hospital operating room

Abstract

A proper ventilation system is necessary for isolating and reducing airborne particles in a hospital operating room. Most healthcare uses a downward unidirectional (laminar) flow in the area of the operating table to give a sterile environment to the patient. However, the unidirectional downward airflow can easily be deviated due to a buoyancy force induced by heated surfaces such as a person's and medical lamp's surfaces. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the effects of lamps and human body surface temperatures on particles distribution in the vicinity of the operating table inside an operating room. A simplified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the operating room was developed using commercial software. An RNG k-epsilon turbulent flow model was used to simulate the airflow while a discrete phase model (DPM) was used to simulate the movement of the airborne particle of size 5 μm. Results of CFD simulations show that when the surgical lamp and staff surface temperatures were prescribed at 45°C and 37°C, respectively, a more significant amount of particles appear to be on the floor of the adjacent area of the operating table head section. On average, the particle concentration in the vicinity of the operating table increases by 16%.