Welcome to Aseptic Surgery Forum
Aseptic Surgery Forum is a dedicated online community and knowledge hub focused on the science, practice, and advancement of aseptic technique in surgery. Our mission is to bring together surgeons, perioperative nurses, infection control practitioners, researchers, educators, and all allied healthcare professionals who share a passion for eliminating surgical site infections and ensuring the highest standards of sterile practice.
Whether you’re seeking best practices, case discussions, peer support, or cutting-edge research, you’ll find a place to connect, learn, and contribute.
Why This Forum Exists
Surgical site infections (SSIs) remain a significant challenge in healthcare worldwide. Even with advances in sterilization technology, antiseptics, and operating room design, lapses in sterile technique, human factors, or system processes can still lead to adverse patient outcomes.
A forum specifically centered on aseptic surgery offers several unique advantages:
- Focused discussions: Unlike general medical or surgery forums, here the emphasis is on sterility, infection prevention, instrument handling, operating room protocols, and related topics.
- Multidisciplinary perspectives: A successful aseptic practice relies not just on the surgeon, but on the entire surgical team — nurses, scrub techs, sterilization engineers, infection control officers, and hospital leadership. Our community fosters cross-disciplinary sharing.
- Continuous learning: New research, evolving guidelines, emerging sterilization methods, and lessons from real-life challenges can be discussed in near real time.
- Peer support & mentorship: For practitioners in low-resource or remote settings, the forum can provide access to collective wisdom, practical troubleshooting, and mentorship from experienced professionals.
- Documentation & traceability: Forum threads can serve as case libraries or reference points for specific complications, best-practice discussions, or innovation ideas.
What You’ll Find Here
1. Technical Protocols & Guidelines
Discussions on:
- Sterilization methods (autoclave, ETO, plasma, etc.)
- Instrument reprocessing workflows
- Maintaining sterile fields, draping techniques
- Handling and responding to breaks in sterile technique
- Monitoring and auditing surgical site infection rates
2. Case Studies & Incident Reviews
Members can share anonymized case experiences — both successes and complications — to dissect what went well, what didn’t, and what lessons can be drawn. Learning from real-world events helps reinforce best practices.
3. Research, Innovations & Literature Sharing
Forum users can spotlight new research articles, review emerging technologies (e.g. antibacterial coatings, novel sterilization devices), debate guideline updates, and organize journal club style discussions.
4. Training, Education & Resources
Whether you’re training new staff or refreshing your own knowledge, this space supports:
- Protocol templates & checklists
- Training modules, videos, webinars
- Discussion of simulation approaches for aseptic technique
- Q&A and peer guidance
5. Global & Resource-Constrained Perspectives
A key value of our community is inclusion of voices from diverse settings. Many forums focus on high-resource settings; here, we encourage contributions from practitioners working under constraints — sharing “workarounds” that maintain safety, and advocating for scalable improvements globally.
Our Community Values
- Safety first: All discussion is grounded in patient safety and the prevention of infection.
- Respect & collegiality: Diverse experience levels are welcome — from trainees to seasoned experts. Disagreements are encouraged when backed by evidence, but always with professional courtesy.
- Evidence-based approach: Opinions should be grounded in science, published guidelines, or documented experience.
- Open sharing: We encourage sharing of protocols, audit data, and “lessons learned” (with respect to privacy and confidentiality).
- Global inclusion: We respect that settings vary — no one-size-fits-all model. We aim to learn from each other across settings, geographies, and resource levels.
How to Get Started
- Register an account — create a membership to participate fully in discussions, start new threads, and receive updates.
- Introduce yourself — tell us your role (surgeon, nurse, sterilization tech, researcher, etc.), location, and your interests in aseptic practice.
- Browse categories — whether you’re interested in “Sterilization Techniques,” “Case Reviews,” “Training & Education,” or “Global Practice,” dive in.
- Post & ask — have a question, challenge, or innovation to share? Start a thread.
- Engage & respond — reply to others, ask follow-up questions, or offer supportive insights from your experience.
- Contribute resources — documents, checklists, audit templates, or links to key guidelines you trust.
A Short Historical Perspective
The principles behind aseptic surgery — ensuring sterile technique to prevent microbial contamination — date back through medical history. Early pioneers like Octave Terrillon advocated boiling water sterilization and promoted separation of antiseptic and aseptic concepts. Wikipedia Surgeons such as Gustav Adolf Neuber further advanced ideas like separate operating rooms for “septic” and “non-septic” cases to reduce cross-contamination. Wikipedia
Over time, our understanding of sterile fields, instrument reprocessing, facility ventilation, human factor design, and surgical checklists has evolved. Yet, despite all these advances, the human factor remains critical — even the best equipment fails if protocols are not rigorously followed.
The establishment of a specialized forum for aseptic surgery helps close that “last mile” — connecting knowledge, rigor, and everyday practice.
Why Join & What You Gain
- Improve patient outcomes by reducing surgical site infections
- Learn from worldwide colleagues, including those facing resource limitations
- Stay current with new research, guidelines, and technologies
- Access practical tools (checklists, templates, audit frameworks)
- Build professional relationships and mentorship channels
Together, we can raise the standard of aseptic practice globally, share solutions, and continuously improve surgical safety and quality.