In Reply:
We are honored to receive the comments by Dr. Jan Ehrenwerth, Professor Emeritus, Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, Connecticut), and author of our main textbook reference. We appreciate the enthusiasm for the reduction in operating room fires as evidenced by the personal communication between the leadership at the Emergency Care Research Institute (Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania) and Dr. Ehrenwerth, as well as the 2018 Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) report. Unfortunately, our review of the nationwide U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Silver Spring, Maryland) Manufacturer and User Device Experience suggests operating room fires are a persistent problem, as seen in figure 1 of the original article.1 We also communicated with Emergency Care Research Institute leadership but were unable to review their data due to patient privacy concerns (personal written communication, September 29, 2015, with Mark E. Bruley, C.C.E., vice president, Accident and Forensic Investigation, Emergency Care Research Institute). We hope that the state of Pennsylvania reflects the reality of the rest of the United States, but we remain concerned that operating room fires are underreported and warrant continued focus and education to ensure patient and operating room team safety in every surgical and interventional procedure.
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.