STERILITY OF ANESTHETIC AND RESUSCITATIVE DRUG SYRINGES USED IN THE OBSTETRIC OPERATING-ROOM

Because of the constant threat of emergent cesarean delivery, anesthet ic induction and resuscitation drugs are often drawn into syringes and stored in the obstetric operating room (OR). This study investigated the potential for bacterial and fungal contamination of six drugs (thi opental, succinylcholine, ephedrine, atropine, lidocaine, and oxytocin ) often prepared in the obstetric OR. A total of 756 drug syringes wer e prepared and stored in the obstetric OR for 8 days using normal clin ical practices. Starting on Day 0, and subsequently on Days 4 and 8 of the experiment, 42 syringes of each drug were randomly selected from the pool, filtered through a 0.45-mu m porosity sterile cellulose filt er and cultured on 5% sheep blood agar. Of the 756 syringes tested, no ne grew organisms of any type, which indicates a probability of drug s terility of greater than or equal to 0.9961 (95% confidence interval [ CI]). The data from the cultures performed on syringes on Day 0 indica te a probability of initial contamination of less than or equal to 0.0 18 (95% CI). This study demonstrates a high probability of sterility i n drugs drawn into sterile syringes and stored at room temperature in an OR environment for up to 8 days. Implications: Drug syringes stored in emergency operating rooms are discarded after 24 h because of poss ible contamination. We searched for microorganisms in drug syringes st ored in the operating room for up to 8 days. No microbes were detected using standard sterility testing techniques. Adopting longer storage periods could result in significant cost savings.