A computer evaluation of ventilation performance in a negative-pressure operating theater.

Chow, Tin-tai; Kwan, Anne; Lin, Zhang; Bai, Wei

BACKGROUND A negative-pressure operating theater is required to limit the spread of respiratory diseases in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome, tuberculosis, avian influenza, or similar infectious diseases. In Hong Kong, we converted a conventional operating theater into a negative-pressure operating theater that has been in service for more than a year. In this article, we introduce its ventilation design and evaluate the airflow performance in relation to different combinations of medical lamp configurations and modes of launching infectious particles into the room air. METHODS We used a computational fluid dynamics technique for the numerical analysis. RESULTS Our analyses showed that the airflow performance in the negative-pressure operating theater was satisfactory and comparable to the original positive-pressure design. The airflow pattern effectively controlled the dispersion of infectious particles. Our calculations demonstrated that the airflow contained the dispersion of infectious particles released from the patient sufficiently to protect the surgical team, and vice versa. CONCLUSIONS Computational fluid dynamics can be used to assess airflow in a negative-pressure operating room and model the dispersion of infectious particles from the patient.