Medical staff’s posture on airflow distribution and particle concentration in an operating room

Abstract

During a surgical procedure, each of the medical staffs would have different postures. Supporting medical staff such as anaesthesiologist would stand in upright condition with straighten-forearm, while medical staff that is performing surgical procedures is in bent-forearm posture. The positioning of forearm might interrupt the air supplies from the ceiling-mounted diffuser, that serves to remove the airborne particles from the surgical zone. Consequently, the movement of particles in the surgical zone is affected, and the tendency of particles to fall onto the patient's wound is increased. This situation could elevate the chances of a patient contracting surgical site infections and could increase the risk of death. The present study aims to examine the effects of medical staff's forearm posture on the number of particles falling onto the patient. A simplified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the operating room was developed and validated based on the published data. An RNG k-ϵ turbulence model based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations was used to simulate the airflow, while a discrete phase model was used to simulate the movement of the airborne particles. Results show that bent-forearm of medical staff obstructed the downward airflow to remove the particles released by the medical staff. Approximately 37 particles/m3 accumulated in the chest region of the medical staff. A high particle accumulation is also observed at the gap between the staff's legs due to the stagnant airflow.