78 Occupational exposure assessment to inhaled anaesthetics of personnel of human and veterinary surgical theatres

Introduction Desflurane, sevoflurane and isoflurane are halogenated anaesthetics used in human and animal surgery. The airborne dispersion of volatile anaesthetics during surgical procedures gives rise to some unavoidable exposure of the operating room personnel. The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure to anaesthetics gases of personnel of operating rooms by environmental and biological monitoring. Methodology The study was carried out on 176 workers involved in human (n. 167) and animal (n. 9) surgery. Personal exposure was measured using the diffusive air sampler Radiello placed near the breathing zone (only 68 subjects). At the end of the work shift (lasting at least 4 h) a urine sample from each subject was collected to measure the anaesthetic gases concentration. All analysis were performed by HS-GC-MS. Results Personal environmental exposure to sevoflurane, desflurane and isoflurane was in the range <0.003-1.214 ppm, 0.035-0.253 ppm and 1.371-5.034 ppm, respectively. Urinary concentrations were in the range <0.1-5.2 µg/L for sevoflurane, <0.1-2.2 µg/L for desflurane and 29.7-40.1 µg/L for isoflurane. The anaesthetic gases exposure of workers in human surgery was low. Higher exposure levels were found for the personnel performing surgery on animals, in particular for isoflurane (used only for animal surgery) where, in some cases, the levels were above 2 ppm (occupational limit value recommended by NIOSH for halogenated anaesthetics). This result, even if is based on few data could be due to the physical characteristics of patients (horses), the quantity of anaesthetics used, surgical procedures and scavenging methods.