Worried about unintentional operation table movement? Here is an easy solution!!

Sir,

The modern anesthesia branch is “Patient safety first” centered. Various technology and equipment are developed for operation theater to improve the patient's safety. The handling of the operation table during perioperative period is mainly done by the anesthesiologist. Various adverse Incidences have been reported due to mishandling or malfunctioning of operation table.[12] The WHO recommends surgical checklist for the safety of patient to avoid such incidences. It is not uncommon that even after surgical checklist, some incidences such as tipping or other abnormal movements of operation table were seen. These may lead to serious injury to patients especially when patient is anesthetized. With the careful observation, the cause of accidental tipping was identified as unintentional activation of remote keys. The remote keys were unintentionally activated due to unnoticed contact of anesthesiologist's body parts like hands, abdomen or thigh with operation theatre table remote control [Figure 1a]. As the remote is commonly placed at the head end or side of the operation table with slight outward projection [Figure 1b], this method is prone for accidental activation. The supplied remotes of operation table are of two varieties one which has dedicated power switch [Figure 1c] while other do not have it [Figure 1d]. The tipping or other movements occur most commonly with the latter variety. Such incidences are minimized by placing the remote in opposite direction as shown in Figure 2. This simple technique saves the serious injuries which may occur due to unintentional pressing of the keys. The major disadvantage is, during emergency, it is time-consuming, but it can be overcome with due practice. We would like to recommend that, the manufacturing company of operation table should understand possibility of such adverse events and mandatorily provide a dedicated power key. The user should switch it on or off depending upon the requirement.

Figure 1

(a) Thigh of anesthesiologist touching the remote unintentionally (b) slight outward projection of remote from table (c) dedicated power switch in remote (d) nondedicated power switch in remote

Figure 2

Hanging of remote in reverse direction

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