Surgeons' concern and practices of protection against bloodborne pathogens.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate surgeons' concern regarding risk awareness and behavioral methods of protection against bloodborne pathogen transmission during surgery.

METHODS

A 29-item questionnaire was sent to 914 surgeons from two universities and two surgical societies.

RESULTS

The questionnaire was returned by 768 active surgeons. Slight or moderate concern about contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was reported by most surgeons; 8% reported extreme concern and 4% reported no concern. In total, 605 surgeons reported having been vaccinated against hepatitis B; surgeons in practice <7 years were most likely to be vaccinated. Most surgeons did not routinely use double gloves: 92 of 768 surgeons reported that they always use double gloves when performing surgery, and 83 reported that they usually use double gloves. There was a statistically significantly higher proportion of surgeons who always or usually use double gloves who also had hepatitis B vaccinations. Most surgeons incorrectly estimated the seroconversion rates with exposure to a patient with HIV (66% incorrect), hepatitis B (88% incorrect), or hepatitis C (84% incorrect). Most surgeons never or rarely report needle-stick injuries, and only 17% always report needle-stick injuries.

CONCLUSIONS

Most surgeons underestimate the risk of bloodborne pathogens and do not routinely use double gloves.