Why can't you wear jewelry during surgery?

Answer 1

Jewellery is a hazard in the Operating room for a number of reasons. If you are a patient having surgery, jewellery must be removed because the surgeon will often be using an electrosurgical unit to help control bleeding. If you are wearing metal, it can interfere with the passing of electricity through your body. In addition, jewellery within the operative site must be removed as it gets in the way and harbors bacteria, which can lead to post operative infections (ie. having an incision around the belly button would mean a definite need to remove a navel piercing).

First, let's spell it right. Jewelry is not allowed in the operating room for several reasons. The first one is to prevent the patient from receiving a "possible" burn from the current that comes from the electrocautery unit. Electricity will and can travel to any metal on the body. That's the reasoning for the grounding pad. Second, if the patient experiences edema during surgery, the jewelry could cause a danger in cutting off circulation to an extremity, say a finger or toe. Thirdly, infection is always important to prevent. Jewelry with stones carry more germs than plain gold bands, but the underlying tissue can harbor germs.

So to protect you patient and yourself, always advise your patients about the risk and then let them make the choice. Have them sign a waiver that acknowledges they are aware of the risks.

Answer 2

When you go in for surgery, you will be given anesthetics which will make you unable to communicate with the doctor about how you are feeling so they relie on the signs from your body to let them know how you are handling the surgery. They need to put a probe on your finger to see your oxygen level in your blood, and it can't read through fingernail polish. Plus, if the probe were to fail and your oxygen levels were getting low your fingernails would start turning blue and they could see this if your polish were off. Makeup in general on the face, can mask your skin color, which is a quick check on how you are handling surgery. Also, if something went wrong and they needed to put you to sleep to save your life, they would need to tape your eyes shut and put other tape on your face, and tape doesn't stick well to makeup and face creams. Also, in the room there are gases used for anesthesia which are considered flamable. They use an electric knife for cutting and other electric items in the room and so they want to reduce any chance for a fire. They tape a big pad with wires to your back which "grounds" your body to help prevent a static electric spark near the surgery site (or anywhere on your body) Believe it or not, the patient with the drapes on him/her are considered the most flamable thing in the room, I suppose any oil (as in makeup) that can be prevented from being in the room makes it a much safer place. Source: http://sg.answers.Yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080101160540AAYmx5v