Casual Surgical Techniques in January 1992 Photograph

To the Editor.—In the January 1992 issue of the Archives¹ an excellent commentary by Richard Pollard about the precautions that are necessary to prevent infection with human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis B virus among health care workers follows an article by Mahieu and Dikkers¹ that contains an illustration showing a very casual surgical technique.

For many years it has been customary for those using microscopes for laryngological procedures to be casual about sterile technique. I think it is worthwhile to point out the risk of transferring infectious material not only from patient to health care workers but from one patient to a subsequent one when sterile precautions are not used.