Oxygen limits infections from surgery
By Nathan Seppa
Of all the recent advances in surgery, some of the simplest are among the most valuable. For instance, scientists discovered 4 years ago that just keeping a patient warm during and after surgery reduces infections. A year later, other researchers found that this precaution also saves lives (SN: 4/12/97, p. 220).
Researchers now report that giving a patient extra oxygen during and after surgery halves the occurrence of postsurgical infection, a dangerous complication.
“We’re trying to evaluate simple, inexpensive, easy things that might make a big difference in how patients do [during and after surgery],” says Daniel I. Sessler, an anesthesiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.