Assessment of surgical smoke knowledge and exposure symptoms of the operating room team: a Turkish sample

Backgrounds

The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge of operating room (OR) staff about surgical smoke and to examine its negative effects on health.

Methods

A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. The study population consisted of the health care team working in the OR of a university and a state hospital. The sample consisted of 113 participants who met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected using a data collection form based on the literature. A P-value of >0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

The mean age of the participants was 36.10 ± 8.13 years. 61.9% of the participants had not received training on surgical smoke. It was determined that 85% of the participants were bothered by surgical smoke, always experiencing discomfort from the odour (39.9%), occasionally pain or burning in the throat (33.6%), and rarely vision impairment (31.9%) due to exposure to surgical smoke.

Conclusions

The level of knowledge of the healthcare team working in the OR about the risks of surgical smoke and prevention measures is inadequate. Exposure to surgical smoke has been linked to adverse effects such as eye irritation, headaches, and respiratory symptoms.