Ahmed A
Department of Surgery, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.
Ann Afr Med. 2007 Mar;6(1):31-3. doi: 10.4103/1596-3519.55733.
Surgical hand scrub (SHS) is an important antisepsis measure before participating in surgical operation. It reduces the risk of microbial contamination of the surgical wound by skin flora. SHS is usually performed in a scrub sink with taps that have hand operated handles. During the scrub process large volume of water is wasted. The aim of this study was to determine the volume of water used during SHS in comparison to the actual volume necessary.
Unknown to them various cadre of the operation team were timed during their first scrubbing of the day for scheduled operations. Duration of scrubbing (ST) and that during which the hands were being washed with flowing water (WT) were recorded. The amount of water flowing through the tap per minute was also recorded. Using the mean ST, WT and water flow per minute the total volume of water used during scrubbing and that necessary to wash the hand were calculated.
Overall, the ST ranged between 3 and 7 minutes with a mean of 4.8 +/- 0.5 SD minutes. Mean WT was 1.4 +/- 0.4 SD minutes. The mean water flow was 4,217mls per minutes. The volume of water used per scrubbing was 20.2 litres while only 5.9 litres was used for washing the hands. Between January and December 2002, the volume of water used for scrubbing was 200,283 litres while only 58,498.5 litres (29.2%) was necessary.
Plenty water is wasted during STIS. Reducing the amount of water flowing unused would provide cost saving to the hospital. The use of taps operated with foot pedal would reduce the waste.
外科洗手是参与外科手术前一项重要的消毒措施。它可降低手术伤口被皮肤菌群微生物污染的风险。外科洗手通常在配有手动水龙头的洗手槽中进行。在洗手过程中会浪费大量的水。本研究的目的是确定外科洗手过程中实际用水量与所需实际水量的对比情况。
在手术团队成员进行当日首次预定手术洗手时，在他们不知情的情况下对其进行计时。记录洗手时间（ST）以及手在流水下冲洗的时间（WT）。同时记录每分钟通过水龙头的水量。利用平均洗手时间、冲洗时间以及每分钟水流量，计算出洗手过程中使用的总水量以及洗手所需的水量。
总体而言，洗手时间在3至7分钟之间，平均为4.8±0.5标准差分钟。平均冲洗时间为1.4±0.4标准差分钟。平均水流量为每分钟4217毫升。每次洗手用水量为20.2升，而洗手实际只需5.9升。2002年1月至12月期间，洗手用水总量为200283升，而实际只需58498.5升（29.2%）。
外科洗手过程中浪费了大量的水。减少未使用的流水量可为医院节省成本。使用脚踏式水龙头可减少浪费。
