What Do Surgeons Do When They Have To Leave The Operating Room During A Surgery To The Restroom?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Sheaffer Williams, Anesthesiologist, father of three, owned by two dogs.



If the surgery tech can be spared from the surgery, they step away from the table and do what is called “dropping” (short for dropping sterility) or “breaking scrub”. They take off the gloves and gown and go do their business. When they have had a break they “scrub” back in.

If they can’t be spared, the circulating nurse calls for a replacement who scrubs their hands then gowns and gloves up. When the replacement gets to the table there is a brief discussion of where they are in the surgery and what they were doing. Then the replacement takes over and the tech leaves.

When the surgeon needs to go to the ‘Little Doctor’s Room’ they just pause at an appropriate point and cover the wound with either warm saline or a wet gauze and drop scrub. They do their business and scrub back in just as they did at the beginning of the case.

I would say that surgeons scrubbing out is pretty infrequent. Techs scrub in and out a little more frequently but it is kept to a minimum due to concerns about infection.

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