1.3 Awareness
HCW often do not detect contaminations, with reports of 85%-100% of
the time.(32, 34, 35, 42, 51, 52) HCW do not routinely use face shield
if they consider the procedures to be unlikely to be associated with
potential contamination.(2, 53) Traditionally surgeons have not worn eye
protection as this is thought to influence vision through the eyepiece
of the microscope, discomfort, fogging, reflection and refraction of
light, routine lack of availability of eye/face protection, spectacles
not fitting under protection, or the feeling that their own spectacles
provide adequate protection.(2, 30, 37, 53, 54) These may not be a
significant problem with face shield.
Chong S et al’s study reported that 26.8% of the surgeons admitted to
have splash into their eyes, and only 8.5% sought testing for disease
transmission, suggesting that despite 98.5% of the study population
awareness of conjunctival blood s plash as a route of disease
transmission, it is not respected.(37)