Gudrun Westermann
The 14th Swiss Sterilization Conference which once again was held at the Congress Centre in Biel was entitled “Hand in Hand”.
Prof. Daniel Egloff gave an overview of developments in hand surgery. While originally hand surgery mainly involved surgical repair of hand injuries, the focus today was on, among other things, treatment of arthrosis. Egloff named various pioneers in hand surgery, e.g. Bunnell, who had organized treatment of hand injuries during the Second World War and wrote a book on that topic. Trailblazing changes in surgical techniques were pioneered, inter alia, by Verdan who introduced the tendon primary-suture repair technique. The lecture was rounded off with a video on the history of infectiology.
Dr Jean-Yves Beaulieu reported on his experiences with disposable sets in hand surgery. He explained that in 90% of distal radial fractures, regular osteosynthesis involved the use of a volar plate. That procedure was also associated with the lowest complication rate and with a lower incidence of plate removal compared with other forms of osteosynthesis.
Corresponding single-use sets were available for this surgical procedure, containing in addition to the plate and screws also the necessary instruments (screwdriver, drill, and measuring instruments to determine the screw length).
The advantage of these over multiple use sets was that the screws were not repeatedly reprocessed, thus eliminating the risk of corrosion. In the meantime there were also sets with plates for other types of injury, e.g. ulnar head fracture.
Beaulieu pointed out that the waste materials could now be recycled, thus making a positive contribution to the environmental balance.
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Read the entire article at Zentralsterilization 04/2018 p. 208 or download it here.
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Publication Date: 23.08.2018
Citation of this article:
Hand in Hand - 14th Swiss Sterilization Conference, 20 to 21 June 2018, Biel. Zentr Steril 2018; 26 (4): 208–213.
References:
Photo: iStock
