Investigating the impact of clinical anaesthetic practice on bacterial contamination of intravenous fluids and drugs

Syringes (N = 426), ventilator machine swabs (N = 202) and intravenous (IV) fluid administration sets (N = 47) from 101 surgical cases were evaluated for bacterial contamination. Cultures from the external surface of syringe tips and syringe contents were positive in 46% and 15% of cases, respectively. The same bacterial species was cultured from both ventilator and syringe in 13% of cases, and was also detected in the IV fluid administration set in two cases. A significant association was found between emergency cases and contaminated syringes (odds ratio 4.5, 95% confidence interval 1.37-14.8; P = 0.01). Other risk factors included not using gloves and failure to cap syringes.