Thermal comfort assessment of orthopaedic health professionals in an operating room

Abstract

The present work aims to study thermal sensation of orthopaedic health professionals during the execution of their activities in an operating room. The development of a questionnaire allowed the knowledge of the personal factors and thermal sensation of those professionals when exposed to their work environment. Considering the data similarities, four different classes were created: "Surgeon", "Surgeon's Assistant", "Instrumentalist" and "Nurses and Auxiliaries". Among the considered classes, the study focuses in two: "Surgeons" and "Nurses and Auxiliaries" which presented considerable differentiation. The first class presented a thermal sensation directed towards a hotter thermal sensation, while the latter on was directed to a colder thermal sensation. Additionally, it was verified that the surgeons present a greater intolerance towards thermal environment variations when compared to the nurses and auxiliaries.