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The Potential for Dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Through the Anesthesia Breathing Circuit
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The Potential for Dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Through the Anesthesia Breathing Circuit

Paul B. Langevin, Kenneth H. Rand and A. Joseph Layon
Chest, v 115(4), pp 1107-1114
Apr 1999
PMID: 10208216

Abstract

anesthesia breathing circuit contamination Mycobacterium tuberculosis Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory pathogens Staphylococcus aureus
Respiratory pathogens that pass through the anesthesia breathing system potentially can infect other patients. This study was designed to determine if bacteria can pass through contemporary anesthesia breathing systems and if the environment within the machine is hostile to these organisms. Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis were nebulized into the expiratory limb of an anesthesia breathing circuit and collected from the inspiratory and expiratory limbs in an impinger system that provided a quantitative determination of the number of organisms entering the circuit and the number that would reach the patient in the inspiratory gas. Bacteria were collected before, during, and after nebulization. A second experiment determined if a saturated solution of soda lime was bactericidal. When the gas flow through the circuit was interrupted for < 1 h following the nebulization period, large numbers of microorganisms (1 × 103 to 1 × 105, around 100% of the nebulized organisms) were collected from the inspiratory gas. Soda lime itself was not bactericidal for any of the organisms tested, but solutions of this material with a pH of 12 were bactericidal. Cross contamination between patients may occur unless the gas flow through the anesthesia breathing system is interrupted for > 1 h.

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Web of Science research areas
Critical Care Medicine
Respiratory System
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