X marks the spot: Sharpies get thumbs-up for marking surgery sites
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - 16:21
in Health & Medicine
A bit of good news out of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta for patients undergoing surgery or an invasive procedure, their surgeons and cost-conscious hospital administrators. It's standard practice for the surgeon or their designate, (in consultation with the patient when possible), to mark the operative/invasive site using a marking pen before an operation, a precaution to ensure surgeons cut the correct spot. But there was concern that germs would be spread from one patient to the next, so it has also become common procedure to throw away the marker each time, costing thousands of dollars a year.