Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Date of publication 1997 Jan 17;volume 46(2):21-5.
1. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1997 Jan 17;46(2):21-5.
Evaluation of safety devices for preventing percutaneous injuries among
health-care workers during phlebotomy procedures--Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York
City, and San Francisco, 1993-1995.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health-care workers (HCWs) are at risk for infections with bloodborne pathogens
resulting from occupational exposures to blood through percutaneous injuries
(PIs). Phlebotomy, one of the most commonly performed medical procedures, has
been associated with 13% - 62% of injuries reported to hospital occupational
health services and 20 (39%) of the 51 documented episodes of occupationally
acquired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection reported in the United
States (CDC, unpublished data, 1996). Although safety devices designed to
prevent PIs associated with phlebotomy have been available for use in the United
States, clinical evaluation of these devices has been difficult because 1)
ascertainment of PIs is difficult (many injuries are unreported, and observation
of all procedures is impractical because phlebotomy is performed throughout the
hospital by different groups of HCWs at all hours), 2) data to calculate PI
rates (i.e., the number of phlebotomies performed and devices used) are not
routinely available, 3) a large number of phlebotomies must be evaluated because
of the low rates of phlebotomy-related PI and 4) rates of safety-feature
activation are difficult to assess. This report summarizes a collaborative study
by CDC and six hospitals to evaluate safety devices for phlebotomy. The findings
indicate that use of safety devices significantly reduced phlebotomy-related PI
rates while having minimal clinically apparent adverse effects on patient care.
PMID: 9011778 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
Appears in following Topics:
