Anesthesiology Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anesthesiology, including details on clinical anesthesiology, evidence based practice, techniques.

The use of single-use devices in anaesthesia: balancing the risks to patient safety.

Rowley E, Dingwall R

Institute for Science and Society, West Wing, Law and Social Sciences Building, University Park, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Emma.Rowley@nottingham.ac.uk

Single-use devices are designed, manufactured and sold to be used once and then discarded. This paper addresses growing concerns about the quality of some devices. Single-use devices, manufactured at a lower cost to justify their disposal, are perceived to have a lesser efficacy, which may threaten patient safety through iatrogenic harm. There is, in addition, growing scepticism about the actual risk of contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other blood-borne diseases from reused surgical instruments. Interview data suggests that when choosing to use a single-use device, clinicians balance concerns about the risk of infection against those about the risk of injury. However, despite reservations about induced harm and the unknown risk of an iatrogenic disease, most clinicians would want single-use devices used on themselves and their family if they were patients.

Published 17 May 2007 in Anaesthesia, 62(6): 569-74.
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