Health devices
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Review
A clinician's guide to surgical fires. How they occur, how to prevent them, how to put them out.
Surgical fires--fires that occur on or in a surgical patient--are a rare but devastating complication of surgical procedures. They can happen during almost any kind of operation and can have dire consequences for both the patient and the hospital. The risk of surgical fires can be minimized as long as everyone on the surgical team understands how fires start and what to do when they occur. ⋯ Through a series of case histories, we illustrate the many ways in which fires can start in the operating room. We also provide a detailed list of prevention methods. Finally, we describe the steps to take and the equipment to use--and not use--when a fire does occur.