Urgent Focus on Occupational Exposure to HIV in Orthopedic Surgery: A 10-Year Retrospective Study of 215 Surgeries in a Chinese Hospital

After more than 40 years of continuous struggle with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is still one of the most widespread and harmful infectious diseases in the world. 1,2With the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), the living quality of people living with HIV (PLWH) has been significantly improved, and life expectancy has tended to be normal. 3During this period, there is an increasing number of events requiring surgical treatment, especially for patients with severe conditions and ineffective conservative treatment. 4In these operations, degenerative orthopedic diseases such as cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, and osteoarthritis plague most patients. 5Medical staff have a high chance of contact with all kinds of sharp instruments during orthopedic surgery, the sharp property of bone compared with other human soft tissues makes the risk of occupational exposure greater.Protection against occupational exposure (OE) is a critical issue when performing orthopedic surgery on PLWH.Retrospective analysis was used in this study.A total of 215 hIV patients who underwent surgery in the orthopedics department of our hospital from November 2010 to December 2020 were included by reviewing the medical records.The study was conducted by the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University.Excel 2016 was used to establish a database and calculate the corresponding frequency and incidence.