CONTAMINATION RISKS FROM A HIGH-SPEED BONE BURR

Study Design. The authors recorded the contamination rate at a mock su rgical site below a high-speed burr crating debris from a fresh-frozen allograft specimen. Objectives. To document possible contamination ra tes associated with high-speed burr use. Summary of Background Data. T he literature contained no studies addressing a known rate of contamin ation from high-speed burr use. Methods. Samples of debris were collec ted in a mock-up of an operation involving bone burring. Set distances were maintained between objects within the field. High-speed bone bur ring was performed on fresh-frozen allograft bone specimens, and falli ng debris was collected on sterile culture plates. Control specimens w ere obtained randomly. Two hundred test and 20 control samples were co llected by means of standard sterile techniques. Results. Thirty-five percent of the cultured specimens from the test group grew skin flora, compared with 10% from the control group (P = 0.02). Conclusions. The authors propose that the higher contamination rate in the experimenta l samples resulted from airborne bone chips striking nonsterile surfac es before landing on the culture plates. Such contamination may increa se the risk of wound infection.