Within an operating room, anesthesiologists are responsible for preparing patients for surgery and monitoring their condition during the entire operation. Part of this task involves preparing the anesthesia, which renders the patient unconscious for the duration of the procedure. Drugs used for such purposes are usually stored in glass ampoules which anesthesiologists have to open in the operating room. This seemingly simple task raises the risk of injury and complications, not only to the anesthesiologists themselves, but even to the patient undergoing surgery.
Opening glass ampoules by hand or by using other ampoule breakers can quickly result in sharps injuries and unwanted exposure of barbiturates to anesthesiologists. There are even instances when this unintended exposure occurs and the anesthesiologist has to be removed from the OR, creating an emergency. The simple task of opening a glass ampoule – when done without the right tool – not only puts the anesthesiologist in harm’s way, but also patient being operated on.
How can you avoid sharps injuries?
Our line of ampoule openers eliminates these risks. AO Ampoule Opener and AO+ Ampoule Opener have an impressive array of features (click here to see a full competitive comparison).
- Available in sterile packaging for operating room use
- Built to hold 4 or more ampoules in one device to reduce mix ups
- Completely eliminate injuries from broken glass
- Reduce unnecessary exposure to ampoule contents and drugs
- Avoid the risk of spillage
- Enable easy tracking of ampoules and syringes
- Radically limit needle stick injury when changing needles or when extracting drugs from an ampoule
The AO and AO+ give anesthesiologists providers total peace of mind by offering complete protection from sharps injuries when working with glass ampoules.
If you would like to get a sense of how our openers function, click on any of the videos on the right to view the aspects of safety in our designs. Go to the video section at top of home page for longer versions of the videos for greater details.
Ready to choose the right ampoule opener? Click here to learn about selecting the right opener for the ampoules used in your anaesthesiology department.