Surgical pearl: a rapid sanitary technique for surgical waste disposal

I ssues pertaining to the disposal of surgical waste are seldom discussed in the dermatologic surgery literature. Management of surgical waste as pertaining to the surgeon includes proper disposal of sharps in appropriate containers as well as proper handling and disposal of infectious nonsharp materials. Attention should be paid to two particular issues. First and foremost is to minimize the risk of exposure of patients, health care workers, office or operating room staff, and employees collecting or processing surgical waste to infectious materials through proper disposal of sharp and infectious waste. Although one may assume that these procedures are routinely adhered to in clinical practice, one study in New Zealand discovered that 56% of dental practices disposed of bloody swabs into the waste paper bin, and 24% disposed of contaminated sharp items into the general household refuse collection.1 Second is to minimize aberrant introduction of non-sharp waste into sharp waste disposal containers or of non-infectious waste into infectious waste bags. This is to minimize the financial and environmental costs associated with the processing of sharp and infectious waste. One study of university sharp boxes discovered that the full boxes contained only 14% appropriate sharps by weight and less than 50% appropriate sharps by volume.2 Moreover, the implementation of a waste segregation program in one hospital resulted in a 65% reduction in infectious