In October 2022, the ASA House of Delegates approved Recommendations for Safe Injection Practices (asamonitor.pub/3MEhFsB). Safe injection practices are aseptic measures intended to prevent entry and transmission of pathogens during the preparation, administration, and storage of medications or fluids. Safe injection practices reduce the risk of colonizing intravascular catheters or spreading infections among patients from contaminated medication vials.
Thompson and colleagues reported 33 outbreaks of patient-to-patient transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), leading to 448 cases of disease from 1998-2008 (Ann Intern Med 2009;150:33-9). Genome sequencing precisely identified the viral transmission source (BMC Biol 2013;11:76). Anesthesia professionals were involved in eight of these outbreaks, placing 7,000 patients at risk of exposure and 140 documented cases of hepatitis. From 2008-2019, 66 outbreaks (two or more cases) of viral hepatitis associated with health care were reported to the CDC (asamonitor.pub/3mokQts...