THE OCCURRENCE OF PERCUTANEOUS INJURIES TO HEALTH-CARE WORKERS - A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY IN 7 SWISS HOSPITALS

Objectives: In 1995, a cross sectional survey was conducted in 7 Swiss hospitals to estimate the incidence of percutaneous injuries among nu rses, surgeons, anesthetists and domestic personnel, and to describe t he circumstances of these injuries and the reporting process within th e hospital. Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed and fi lled out on-site in the case of nursing staff and domestic personnel, and was sent by post to physicians (anesthetists and surgeons). Partic ipants were asked to report in detail on percutaneous injuries of the last workday and the last working month (nurses and physicians), and o f the last month and the last year for domestic personnel. The overall response rate was 72%, representing a total of 3116 health care worke rs. Results: The annual incidence rates of percutaneous injury with ma terial contaminated with blood or other biological fluids were calcula ted by type of worker for the two available units of time. For nurses, the incidence was 0.49 and 2.23, for surgeons 4.28 and 11.05, for ane sthetists 2.11 and 3.14, and for domestic personnel 0.11 and 0.17 resp ectively. Most of the injuries occurred in a (( normal situation (no e mergency, no stress, no fatigue) and were described as avoidable. Comp liance with universal precautions was not optimal and declaration rate s within the hospital rather low (nurses 39.7%, physicians 3.4%, domes tic personnel 87.9%). Conclusion: Percutaneous injuries with blood-con taminated material are frequent in health care workers, and are not al ways adequately assessed because of under-reporting of accidents withi n the hospital. This map result in underestimation of current occupati onal exposure of health care workers to HIV and other blood-borne viru ses.