Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Operating Room Personnel and the Consequences of Surgical Smoke Exposure During Surgery

Lasers and electrosurgical units adopted in surgical procedures emit smoke. The devices generate energy that increases the intracellular temperature to boiling, leading to tissue vaporization and consequent surgical smoke. The smoke is not usually visible but has an unpleasant smell. It has ultra-fine particles, toxic compounds such as benzene, hydrogen cyanide, and toluene, viruses such as human papillomavirus (HPV), and cancer cells (CDC, 2020). These surgical smoke compounds are hazardous to anyone inhaling it, including patients and the surgical team comprising surgeons, doctors, technologists, and nurses. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), over half a million healthcare personnel are exposed to surgical smoke annually. Pervasive exposure to surgical smoke compounds can be cumulative and increase the risk of developing adverse health effects like eye and upper respiratory tract irritation in surgical team members and visual issues for the surgeon (CDC, 2020). Notably, the compounds can also result in gene mutation.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Why Registered Nurses Should Understand Surgical Smoke and its Implications

Registered nurses should understand this topic because they are sometimes part of the surgical team. Understanding the topic would help RNs take precautions and preventative measures to minimize exposure or inform initiatives to protect other nurses and healthcare personnel involved in surgeries from exposure. Literature indicates that surgical smoke is a health risk factor, exposing surgical team personnel to compounds that impact their organs (Merajikhah, 2022). Surgical smoke has been noted in complications like toxicity, mutation, carcinogenic, irritation, tumor cell transmissions, virus transmission, headaches, sleepiness, dizziness, bad odor in head hair, and eye tearing when assessing the surgical team and staff (Merajikhah, 2022). These complications are significant health effects registered nurses involved in surgical procedures should protect themselves from. Researching this topic would provide RNs valuable insights into the health effects of surgical smoke and interventions to address surgical smoke, reduce exposure, and the associated health effects.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Clinical Question

The paper adopts the PEO framework to develop the research question. The PEO research questions entail non-numerical data and are often adopted for qualitative research. The framework helps develop questions that explore relationships and associations, for instance, between a treatment intervention and the risk of developing certain health complications like a heart attack (Elsevier Author Services, 2022). The PEO stands for population (P), exposure (E), and outcome (O). The population is what the researcher is studying, which can be objects or people, and exposure is what the population is exposed to, which can be a health risk factor, intervention, or anything that is categorized as the explanatory variable. The outcome is the effects of what the population is exposed to.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

PEO Question

In operating room personnel (P), is there an association between exposure to surgical smoke compounds during surgery (E) and increased risk of developing cancer and respiratory problems (O)?(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Search Strategy

The article search strategy involves searching the PubMed, Frontiers, Science Direct, SAGEPub, and JAMAnetwork databases. PubMed is a free resource that allows searching and retrieving biomedical and life sciences literature to help improve health worldwide and at an individual level. The PubMed database is robust, containing over 35 million citations and abstracts of biomedical research papers (PubMed, 2019). It allows access to multiple journals and healthcare organizations’ publications, allowing a diverse research topic search. Articles are also peer-reviewed, increasing the quality of a research paper. Frontiers is also an open-source database offering access to hundreds of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific articles across the academic spectrum (Frontiers, 2020). The articles are up-to-date, disruptive, and rigorous, enhancing the quality of a research paper. The literature provided aims to offer solutions that elevate the quality of life and promote a healthy planet.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Science Direct is a diverse database, allowing a smooth flow from journals to books across multiple topics and disciplines. It offers high-quality journals, references, and book content with a high impact factor of 5.725 (Elsevier, 2021). SAGEPub is an open-access database but also offers increased access to subscribers. It is the number one leading independent academic publisher globally, offering diversified content, from books to journals and other library products and services (Sage Journals, 2019). The articles SAGE publishes are rigorous and peer-reviewed, enhancing the quality of a research paper. JAMA network database is among the leading open-access databases, offering global access to general medical journals (American Medical Association, 2020). It has a high impact factor of 13.37, and the topics are diversified and offer valuable insights into various issues that matter most in medical research and practice.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

The selected keywords used in the search include surgical smoke, plumes, smoke plume, Bovie smoke electrosurgery, ultrasonic scalpel, electrocautery, occupation hazards, operating room, surgical smoke compounds, carcinogenic, particulate matter, operating room staff, surgical team, theatre staff, operating room (OR) nurses, surgery, safety. Surgical smoke, health, plumes, smoke plume, and Bovie smoke were used as synonyms. Electrosurgery, ultrasonic scalpel, and electrocautery were used interchangeably to describe the causes of surgical smoke. Particulate matter, surgical smoke compounds, carcinogenic, and occupational hazards were used interchangeably or synonyms to describe surgical smoke content. Operating room staff, surgical team, theatre staff, OR nurses, and surgeons were used to describe operating room personnel exposed to surgical smoke. Combinations during the search included; the impact of surgical smoke/smoke plume/plumes/Bovie smoke exposure on the health/safety of operating room staff, the health consequences of surgical team exposure to surgical smoke compounds/ carcinogens/particulate matter, and the impact of electrosurgery/electrocautery/ultrasonic scalpel-generated smoke on theatre staff/OR nurses/surgeons/surgical team. Boolean operators were adopted to develop these combinations. The Boolean operator “OR” represented by the “/” was adopted to broaden concepts and include synonyms to ensure a search retrieves citations using either of the terms, helping expand the search.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

47 articles were retrieved using the above keywords and combinations, 21 from PubMed, 7 from Frontiers, 11 from Science Direct, 5 from JAMA network, and 3 from SAGEPub. The article titles were reviewed for relevance and relation to the research question, resulting in 31 articles. The abstracts of the remaining articles were retrieved and reviewed for their relevance in answering the research question, resulting in 15 articles. Full publications of only four articles were obtained and determined to help address the research question satisfactorily.(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Selected Articles

1. Bree, K., Barnhill, S., & Rundell, W. (2017). The dangers of Electrosurgical smoke to operating room personnel: A review. Workplace Health & Safety, 65(11), 517-526. https://doi.org/10.1177/2165079917691063(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)
2. Dixon, K., Dasgupta, P., & Vasdev, N. (2023). A systematic review of the harmful effects of surgical smoke inhalation on operating room personnel. Health Sciences Review, 6, 100077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hsr.2023.100077
3. Limchantra, I. V., Fong, Y., & Melstrom, K. A. (2019). Surgical smoke exposure in operating room personnel. JAMA Surgery, 154(10), 960. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2019.2515(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)
4. Merajikhah, A., Imani, B., Khazaei, S., & Bouraghi, H. (2022). Impact of Surgical Smoke on the Surgical Team and Operating Room Nurses and Its Reduction Strategies: A Systematic Review. Iranian Journal of public health, 51(1), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v51i1.8289
   

References

American Medical Association. (2020, September 3). JAMA Network™. https://www.ama-assn.org/about/publications-newsletters/jama-network(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

CDC. (2020, December 15). Surgical smoke inhalation: Dangerous consequences for the surgical team. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2020/06/18/surgical-smoke/(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Elsevier Author Services. (2022, August 8). Clinical questions: PICO and PEO research. Elsevier Author Services – Articles. https://scientific-publishing.webshop.elsevier.com/research-process/clinical-questions-pico-and-peo-research/

Elsevier. (2021). ScienceDirect | Elsevier’s leading information solution | Elsevier. Elsevier.com. https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Frontiers. (2020). Frontiers | Peer Reviewed Articles – Open Access Journals. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/

Merajikhah, A., Imani, B., Khazaei, S., & Bouraghi, H. (2022). Impact of Surgical Smoke on the Surgical Team and Operating Room Nurses and Its Reduction Strategies: A Systematic Review. Iranian Journal of public health, 51(1), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v51i1.8289(Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

PubMed. (2019). About – PubMed. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/

Sage Journals. (2019). SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals. Sagepub.com. (Lasers and Electrosurgical Units Adopted in Surgical Procedures Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)https://journals.sagepub.com/