Innovation: The Towel for Protection of Surgical Instrument Fall

Abstract

This research aimed to develop an innovative towel for protection of surgical
instruments falling in the operating room. The purposes of the study were to decrease the
incidence of surgical instrument falling and study satisfaction and assessment of the innovation.
The study was conducted in 3 steps 1) study the problems and theoretical concepts 2) create
and test the innovation 3) evaluate the use of the towel. The samples consisted of 51 patients
undertaking oral and maxillofacial surgery and 18 medical professionals (maxillofacial surgical
team). The study tools included the innovative towel, a form recording the incidence of falling
instruments and a form recording satisfaction and quality assessment of staff. Content validity
and instrument were tested by 3 experts. Data analysis used descriptive statistics (percentage
and mean).
The results revealed that the innovative towel can reduce the incidence of surgical instruments falling. The incidence of surgical instruments falling without the innovative towel was found
to be 54.9% while with the innovative towel it was 21.6%. The previous incidence of surgical
instrument fall from the sliding down at chest or abdomen was found at 56.1% then minimized
to 23.1% after used the innovative towel. For long hanging strings such as blood suction line or
dispersive electrocautery cable, the incidence of surgical instrument falls was 19.5% while the
incidence was zero when using of the innovative towel. Evaluation of results by surgical teams
who used the innovative towel revealed very high satisfaction and assessment levels
The problem of falling instruments should be seriously considered by everyone in
surgical teams involved in fnding the best solution. However, “The towel for protection of
surgical instrument fall” could be an alternative solution.