Health & Medical Archives - Page 4 of 6

Preventing complications: When sterile gloves are necessary

March 12, 2012 by Brian Skellie

Body art procedures can benefit from sterile-barrier precautions, even if they are not as complicated as modern surgical procedures.

Stories of Sterile Gloves

March 29, 2021March 12, 2012 by Brian Skellie

A surgeon who first advocated sterilized gloves. The first paper on sterile gloves in 1897: WZ von Manteuffel

Hand Hygiene — NEJM

April 16, 2014March 12, 2012 by Brian Skellie

Hand Hygiene in the New England Journal of Medicine Complete with interesting video Hand Hygiene Yves Longtin, M.D., Hugo Sax, M.D., Benedetta Allegranzi, M.D., Franck Schneider, and Didier Pittet, M.D. N Engl J Med 2011; 364:e24 March 31, 2011

Why not acrylic body jewelry?

May 30, 2018February 9, 2012 by Brian Skellie

A little about why I encourage people not to wear acrylic body jewelry.

useful info on antimicrobials

November 23, 2011 by Brian Skellie

Useful information on antimicrobial cleaning agents

https://www.fightgermsnow.com/
A useful collection of scientific studies on antimicrobial use in clinical and home settings.

Useful links for further reading on the subjects of instrument processing and sterilization

November 15, 2022November 15, 2011 by Brian Skellie

For brevity, I suggest that you use all sterile disposable single use items, however if you are to reprocess used instruments: Classes Publications

World Standards Day at BMXnet

October 11, 2011 by Brian Skellie

I am teaching Biomaterials standards for body art at the BMXnet conference in Essen, Germany this month for World Standards Day, the celebration of the birth of ISO October 14th, 1946. ASTM International will participate in the U.S. celebration of World Standards Day, sponsored by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on Oct. 13 in Washington, D.C. This year’s … Read more

Nonconforming Imported Titanium

March 15, 2019April 19, 2011 by Brian Skellie

*En Español*

Some of my colleagues have already learned of this from my biomaterials presentations at APP 2010 and BMXnet conferences. This reflects upon imported jewelry, and the situations that can arise when quality controls are not normalized. So far, most of the response I get from US distributors of medical titanium alloys is for ELI material they only use domestic melts.

I’ve been talking with fellow ASTM committee members about international sourcing for F136 Ti in particular. They all only use domestic melts for ELI material from Perryman, ATI and Fort Wayne Metals for example . Therefore when companies in China or elsewhere want to make jewelry from F136 they either have to buy from a US or EU source that has a distributor in their area, eg Taiwan, or buy from an local mill melt, that quite possibly won’t meet FDA, BSI, ISO etc.

Titanium standards: why not G23?

March 21, 2022February 4, 2011 by Brian Skellie

Please stop referring to body jewelry materials by overly vague and inappropriate standards. Using the term G23 for body jewelry materials is too superficial, and is not an implant standard.

Skin antiseptics for piercing preparation

May 22, 2023February 2, 2011 by Brian Skellie

Thoughts on options for skin cleaning prior to body art procedures.

If a product is not labeled for surgical preparation, it really doesn’t matter how good of a hand and body soap or cleanser it is. It would only be a really strong hand wash product, or possibly aftercare for our purposes.

Choose a product that has claims as a “surgical skin preparation” because “scrub” alone is only the first step as cleaning. A two step “scrub then paint” process is appropriate and advised by CDC. That involves a solvent or detergent scrub to clean followed by the surgical antiseptic to kill microbes to an irreducible minimum level of contamination.

What does the evidence suggest that we use?

I have replaced this two step product in my procedure with a sterile version by **Aplicare or Cardinal Health**

I’ve been using FDA approved skin prep PVP-I, CHG or alcoholic CHG, or alcohol depending on the area, with a preference for sterile products, and keep looking for other safe, appropriate options.
For oral preparation, an antiseptic mouthwash containing CPC or dilute H2O2 and friction.

I’m still looking for a universal surgical preparation agent, and have not found anything on the market that is both proven and FDA approved other than PVP-I, CHG based products and alcohol. I don’t want to recommend anything unless it is tested and labeled for the purpose.