We should be concerned with the prevention of postoperative infections from use of unsterile solutions, dressings, and other medications, even though infections due to this cause are uncommon. The ease with which solutions and instruments (tonometers) become contaminated with microbial and viral agents indicates the necessity for vigilance and prevention of contamination. Most surgeons would not think of dressing patients without washing their hands and for the same reason should not carry a tray with contaminated solutions and instruments.
The problem involved in routine changing of eye medications and materials on portable trays in eye dressing rooms, and in the clinic, called our attention to the expense involved, the danger of contamination, the risk of improper compounding, and the real problem of delay in replacing solutions which are outdated. We had the occasional experience of recovering pathogenic organisms from dressing room and tray solutions which had been used a number