Clearing the Smoke in the Operating Room

Ethicon sets out to reduce potential risks posed by surgical smoke.

Las Vegas aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find any employer in the United States that permits smoking in the workplace. The dangers of inhaling cigarette smoke have been well known for decades. But there is a place that harbors something even more hazardous in the air, and it is probably one you would have never expected—your local hospital’s operating room.

This harmful substance is known as surgical smoke, and it is made up of toxic vapors, bioaresols that contain dead and living cell material, blood fragments, and viruses. It is generated by any surgery that uses instruments such as electrocautery and ultrasonic devices, and bone saws and drills.

Surgical smoke has been shown to be even more dangerous than tobacco smoke. This is according to a study in which researchers applied a carbon dioxide laser to one gram of tissue. Then they vaporized an identical gram of tissue with electrosurgical current. The emitted chemical byproducts of both experiments were compared with those found in average tobacco smoke. The results showed that the laser smoke generated from one gram of tissue was equivalent to smoking three unfiltered cigarettes. The electrosurgical smoke was equivalent to smoking six unfiltered cigarettes.