Surgical Smoke; An Occupational Hazard

Surgical smoke is part of the environment during operative and invasive procedures. Electric diathermy is a very important tool for a surgeon and is used in every surgical treatment nowadays. It assists the surgeon to dissect the tissue or enables securing haemostasis in lesser time and with larger delicacy. But at the same time, it has harmful effects on surgeon as well as patients. Although there is a substantial amount of evidence and guidelines from various authors and societies, yet there are no clear policies and preventive measures towards surgical smoke handling. This article presents potential harmful effects of surgical smoke and aims to build guidelines for the surgical personnel based on current evidence in literature.