RE: Sterilizing Bits Between Debridements
From: Jeff Kittay, DPM
I would like to thank all the respondents to my original post, even the unpleasant ones. Those of you who so loftily ridiculed my inquiry may some day be defending the practices you now call state-of-the-art. It was never my intention to claim that my method of practice was superior to anyone else's, only that it is common and not dangerous.
I now stand corrected and have no problem altering my practice methods, though I still know of no published study confirming actual disease spread from a doctor's office to the patient from the use of unsterilized nail burrs. Growing fungal cultures from burrs does not equate with transmission of disease. Our hands, with which most of us touch patients everyday and which we wash scrupulously, are teeming with bacteria and fungi; yet patients escape our offices unharmed.
It was, however, my intention to ask if you feel that my board's requirement that I undergo 30 hours of CME on "hygiene and sterility" was overreaching and excessive. I remain convinced that this is so.
Jeff Kittay, DPM, Boston, MA, twindragons2@verizon.net
