The Surgeon and Hepatitis B Infection
The Surgeon and Hepatitis B Infection
Recommendations of the American College of Surgeons
1. Surgeons should continue to utilize the highest standards of infection control, involving the most effective known sterile barriers, universal precautions, and scientifically accepted infection control practices. This practice should extend to all sites where surgical care is rendered.
2. Surgeons have the same ethical obligations to render care to HBV-infected patients as they have to care for other patients.
3. Surgeons with natural or acquired antibodies to HBV are protected from acquiring HBV from patients. All surgeons (and other members of the operating room team) without natural immunity should be vaccinated against HBV as early as possible in their careers.
4. Surgeons who perform invasive procedures without evidence of immunity to HBV should know their hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) status and, if that is positive, should also know their HBeAg status.
5. Surgeons who are infected with HBV (and are HBeAg-positive) should seek counsel from an unbiased expert review panel structured to maintain practitioner confidentiality.
[Editor's note: For more information on these recommendations, contact the American College of Surgeons, 55 E. Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611-2797. Telephone: (312) 664-4050. Fax: (312) 440-7014. E-mail: [email protected].] *
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.