The Drape That Touched the Floor

In practice

During draping for a hip procedure, Reese, the scrub person, is unfolding a large drape with the surgeon. One corner slips from the surgeon's grasp and brushes the floor before the drape is in place. The rest of the drape is still held high, and the corner barely touched. The surgeon begins to say it is probably fine. Reese says plainly that the drape touched the floor. A drape that has touched an unsterile surface is contaminated, and so is anything it has touched since. Reese asks the circulating nurse for another drape of the same kind. The contaminated drape is removed without dragging it across the prepared skin or the sterile field, and it is discarded off the field. Reese checks that it did not touch the back table or the surgeon's gown on its way out; it brushed the surgeon's sleeve, so the surgeon changes gown and gloves too, as the facility's procedure requires. The new drape is opened, checked and applied, and draping continues. The delay is a few minutes.