The Possibility of Fluid Contamination Within Syringes in Case of Experimental Needle Contamination

Hwa Baik Seung; Moon Shin Bo; Hwa Lee Joo; Suk Kim Jae

doi:10.3341/jkos.2009.50.8.1204

Journal List > J Korean Ophthalmol Soc > v.50(8) > 1008335

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Seung, Bo, Joo, and Jae: The Possibility of Fluid Contamination Within Syringes in Case of Experimental Needle Contamination

Original Article

J Korean Ophthalmol Soc 2009;50(8):1204-1206.

Published online: 7 September 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2009.50.8.1204

The Possibility of Fluid Contamination Within Syringes in Case of Experimental Needle Contamination

Hwa Baik Seung, MD¹, Moon Shin Bo, MD², Hwa Lee Joo, MD³, Suk Kim Jae, MD³

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea

²Department of Laboratory Medicine, Inje University College of Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea

³Department of Ophthalmology, Inje University College of Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Address reprint requests to Jae Suk Kim, MD Department of Ophthalmology, Inje University College of Medicine, Sanggye Paik Hospital #761-1 Sanggye 7-dong, Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-707, Korea Tel: 82-2-950-1096, Fax: 82-2-935-6904, E-mail: eyedoctor@freechal.com

Received 3 November 200826 May 2009

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose:

The present study examined the risk of intraocular infection only in cases where the injection needle was replaced when the injection needle was contaminated before intraocular injection.

Methods:

Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were cultured and smeared on the end of 30 syringe needles containing 0.1 mL normal saline. After removing only the injection needle, the normal saline in the syringes was injected onto blood agar plates and cultured.

Results:

The culture results were positive in 21 out of 30 samples in the group smeared with Staphylococcus aureus, and in 25 out of 30 samples in the group smeared with Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Conclusions:

When the injection needle is contaminated, the replacement of the needle does not eliminate the possibility of intraocular infection.

Keywords: Endophthalmitis, Needle contamination, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis

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Table 1.

Comparison of culture positivity in cases with or without removal of the contaminated needle from the syringe

Organism	Number of culture positive cases with contaminated needle (%)	Number of culture positive cases after removing contaminated needle (%)
S. aureus	30/30 (100%)	21/30 (70%)
S. epidermidis	30/30 (100%)	25/30 (83.3%)
Null	0/30 (0%)	0/30 (0%)

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