Air conditioning in operating rooms and infection control – a review

Abstract

This bibliographic survey in data banks such as MEDLINE, LILACS, SCIELO, Ministry of Health, among others aims at identifying what makes air conditioners a source of environmental contamination. The air is contaminated by particles which transport microorganisms. The sources of particles include patients and surgical staff. The control of the temperature, relative humidity, pressure, number of changes of air accomplished per hour, clothes, traffic, number of people in the rooms, maintenance and cleaning of the system of conditioned air of surgical centers are major factors for the reduction of the number of microorganisms in the environment of operating rooms.