Reservations Concerning Second-Hand Fentanyl Exposure in the Operating Room

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hettick JM ; Hornsby-Myers, Jennifer ; Law, Brandon F. ; Siegel, Paul D.
• Description:
  We are aware of the controversy that Dr. Gold's report of trace levels of fentanyl and propofol in the air of surgical rooms has evoked. Drug dependence among surgical and anesthesiology staff is a serious and complex issue, and we acknowledge the potential for generation of bioaerosol containing narcotics during surgery. Our study was an examination of room air during cardiovascular surgeries in a local hospital to quantify the level of "second hand" fentanyl, a similar setting to that previously reported. Our findings are relevant to fentanyl only; we did not study or attempt to measure propofol. Our manuscript carefully detailed our sampling and analytical methodologies. We sampled an approximate 780-fold greater air volume and used instrumentation of equal sensitivity and better specificity to that reported by Dr. Gold. We are confident that if fentanyl-containing bioaerosol were present in the vicinity of the anesthesiology station at levels previously reported, we would have been able to quantify it. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Anesthesia Delivery Of Health Care Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Narcotics Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Operating Rooms Safety
• Keywords:
  Analytical-methods Anesthetics Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel Medical-care Medical-treatment Medicinal-chemicals Occupational-exposure Operating-rooms Sampling Surgery

  More +
• ISSN:
  1055-0887
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Letter
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  282-283
• Volume:
  29
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037216
• Citation:
  J Addict Dis 2010 Jul; 29(3):282-283
• Email:
  bhl7@cdc.gov
• CAS Registry Number:
  Fentanyl (CAS RN 437-38-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Addictive Diseases
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5262cb82d77e506ea9864517387f49178d84890e6d38883477182885f5b2e517d6051e4d69dba73c02d573e637bdbc5366b9efeac276706643c1b24aba450540
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188345/cdc_188345_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 39.40 KB ]