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Cited by 61Infection Control in HealthcareOccupational Health and Safety in WorkplacesChemical Safety and Risk Management

The importance of implementing safe sharps practices in the laboratory setting in Europe

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De Carli, Gabriella, Abiteboul, Dominique, Puro, Vincenzo·2014·Biochemia Medica
DOI 10.11613/bm.2014.007PMC PMC3936965
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Abstract

Healthcare workers are at risk of sharps injuries and subsequent infection from more than 40 bloodborne pathogens or species. Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) together account for the vast majority of cases. The Directive 2010/32/EU "Prevention from sharp injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector", issued to protect workers from these risks, requires an integrated approach to prevention including awareness-raising, education, training, elimination of unnecessary needles, safe procedures for sharps use and disposal, banning of recapping, vaccination, use of personal protective equipment, provision of safety-engineered devices, and appropriate surveillance, monitoring, response and follow-up. As laboratories represent a high-risk setting both in the preanalytical and analytical phase, we reviewed accidents and prevention in this setting in the light of the new legislation. Phlebotomy is the procedure carrying the highest risk of exposure and infection, involved in 30-50% of HIV and HCV cases detected in nationwide systems following accidental blood exposures implemented since the 1990s in Italy and France. In laboratories, problems in the management of sharps containers, recapping, needle disassembly by hand and blood transfer from syringes into tubes were observed and accounted for two-thirds of injuries. These accidents could be reduced through education and monitoring of behaviours, and introduction of medical devices incorporating safety-engineered protection mechanisms with appropriate training. Laboratory staff should be immunized against HBV, and know policies and procedures for the post-exposure management and prophylaxis. The management commitment to safety is crucial to ensure the necessary support to these changes.

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  • A substantial proportion of healthcare staff directly involved with blood collection has at some time point been exposed to a needle-stick injury during their working time.

    “Given the fact that a substantial proportion of healthcare staff directly involved with blood collection has at some time point been exposed to a needle-stick injury during their working time, wearing gloves sounds like a reasonable infection prevention measure [41], [42].”

    From Joint EFLM-COLABIOCLI Recommendation for venous blood sampling (2018) · cites this paper as [41]

    The ‘Phlebotomy-related exposures and risk of injury for laboratory workers’ section reports frequent needlestick injuries associated with blood drawing and an exposure rate of 11 per 100 phlebotomists per year in private laboratories. Those figures support an occupational risk, but they do not establish what proportion of blood-collection staff have ever experienced a needlestick injury during their careers. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
De Carli, G., Abiteboul, D., & Puro, V.
Affiliations
  • Hôpital Bichat-Claude-Bernard (FR)
  • Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani (IT)
ORCID
Puro, Vincenzo
Venue
Biochemia Medica
Publisher
Croatian Society for Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Published
2014
Volume
24
Issue
1
Pages
45-56
ISSN
  • 1330-0962 (ISSN-L)
  • 1846-7482
DOI
10.11613/bm.2014.007
PMC
PMC3936965
OpenAlex
W2157122758
Cited by
61
References
1
Citations by year
2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5
FWCI
1.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Biochemia Medica (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Hrčak Portal of scientific journals of Croatia (University Computing Centre) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Ministero della Salute
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infection Control in Healthcare
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Safety in Workplaces
  • Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Chemical Health and Safety › Chemical Safety and Risk Management
Keywords
sharps injuries, occupational exposure to blood, laboratory safety, phlebotomy, needle recapping, safety-engineered devices, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, post-exposure prophylaxis, occupational infection prevention, healthcare worker safety
MeSH terms
Communicable Diseases, Europe, Health Personnel, Humans, Laboratories, Occupational Diseases, Risk Factors, Occupational Exposure, Needlestick Injuries

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