Impact of a single safety-engineered device on the occurrence of percutaneous injuries in a general hospital in Brazil

Background: Health care workers are exposed to bloodborne pathogens through occupational injuries, and the replacement of sharps by safety-engineered devices has been recommended as a key preventive measure. This recommendation has been difficult to implement in Brazil.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of selected data from a database of blood and body fluid exposures reported from January 2007 through December 2011 in a public general hospital in Rio de Janeiro where, from the end of 2009, a safety lancet for blood glucose testing (BGT) was introduced. A log-binomial model was used to evaluate the effect of the introduction of the safety lancet on the proportion of percutaneous injuries (PIs) during BGT in the nursing staff.

Results: Nursing staff had a significant reduction in rate of PIs per 100 full-time equivalents from 2007 to 2011 (P < .001), and medical residents had the highest rate throughout the same period. A reduction of PIs by small-gauge needles was observed since 2009, and injuries during BGT fell abruptly in 2010 and 2011 paralleling the number of purchased safety lancets (P < .001).

Conclusion: The adoption of a single safety device, which required no training, significantly reduced PIs among the nursing team.