Needle sticks and injuries due to surgical instruments in health care providers

Objective: Health caregivers are facing various risks andhazards in their working environment. In this study theevaluation and examination of measures to be taken wasaimed among occupational injuries in our hospital in thelast three years.Methods: This study was performed as a retrospectiveinvestigation of 40 records of injury for health care providersthat detected by infection control committee of atertiary care university hospital between May 2010 andApril 2013.Results: Forty health care providers mean aged 28.5±7.8years submission were included. There were 21 male and19 female subjects. Most cases were the nurses (16/40).The majority of the injuries occurred in the surgical wards.Among the submissions, only 3 were working in the emergencyservice. The type of injuries were needle stick in 36cases and injuries due to surgical instruments in 2 casesand mucosal exposure in 2 cases. Following injury, 39cases confirmed that they cleaned the injured area. Inone case, the injured area was exsanguinated by squeezing.The cause of injury was known by 25 cases; however,15 cases did not know the causative material. In one casehepatitis B developed after injury. This case did not applyto the infection committee early stage but referred afterthe development of signs of active hepatitis.Conclusions: Health care providers should be educatedabout the risks of occupational body fluids and blood exposuresand after exposure to blood or blood productsthey should apply to the infection control committee withoutdelay.Key words: Hepatitis B, needle stick, health care provider

Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in Urine of Patients with Hepatitis B and C

Objective: The aim of our study is to determine the role of oxidative stress biomarkers in hepatic damage in hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight patients with chronic hepatitis B, 15 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 30 healthy individuals as a control group were included in this study. Serum alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, urine oxidative stress biomarkers such as malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD-1) and catalase (CAT) activities were measured. Results: Urine MDA levels increased in patients with HBV and HCV compared to the control group. It was higher in HCV patients than HBV patients (p<0.001). Besides, while CAT and SOD-1 activities were decreased in the urine of patients with HCV, they increased in the urine of patients with HBV compared to controls (p<0.05). Furthermore, urine CAT ve SOD-1 activities in patients with HBV were statistically significantly higher than those of the HCV patients (p<0.001). Conclusion: Increase in urine MDA levels in hepatitis forms may be valuable in monitoring in viral hepatitis cases. Also, we thought that insufficiency of antioxidant barrier in patients with HCV may cause oxidative damage, so antioxidant treatment may useful and should be added to the combined therapy for these patients