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)