First Hand: The Surgeon and Hepatitis C
| Autor: | Charles L. McDowell |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Infectious Disease Transmission Patient-to-Professional media_common.quotation_subject Population Wounds Penetrating Punctures Disease Malaise Denial Health care medicine Humans Orthopedics and Sports Medicine education media_common Hepatitis education.field_of_study business.industry General surgery Hand Injuries Hepatitis C Jaundice medicine.disease Occupational Diseases Surgery medicine.symptom business |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Hand Surgery. 37:1693-1694 |
| ISSN: | 0363-5023 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jhsa.2012.04.029 |
| Popis: | d h m c t s s u i i d m a evere malaise, nausea, headache, and a look in the irror showing that jaundice had colored my skin onfirmed beyond denial that the tiny glove and skin uncture sustained about 2 weeks prior had, truly, een a notable happening. I was finished performing urgery on a hepatitis C–positive patient with a drug ddiction when the inadvertent puncture occurred. I ad been distracted while applying the dressing. Fortunately, hospital rules require that all puncture ounds in the operating room must be reported. That eport to the employee health department was the ost positive action I took that day. Consider the probability that a surgeon will acquire cute or chronic hepatitis C. As the old saw goes, with alidity, if you are one of those surgeons who acquire he disease, for you it is 100%. So long as you do not ontract hepatitis C, you can continue to deny that you re at risk and reassure yourself that you are careful and it will not happen to me.” Centers for Disease Control nd Prevention data from surveillance hospitals estiate that more than 380,000 exposures to blood occur nnually to health care workers. A mistaken assumption that the incidence of heptitis C in the general population is low might give urgeons a sense of invulnerability. Avoiding contact ith patients who are drug addicted or hepatitis –positive can help, but it is not ethical behavior. Sadly, the distribution of hepatitis C is wide. (The ost recent assessment by the Centers for Disease ontrol and Prevention is that 3.2 million people in he United States have the virus.) The disease is ommonly undiagnosed because it is chronic and ndolent in most patients; therefore, the percentage ho present with acute disease cannot be derived. How do persons with chronic disease learn that hey are afflicted? If one is fortunate, the clues will |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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