Relationships in anesthesia work areas between contamination measured as colony-forming units, Staphylococcus aureus detection, and S. aureus transmission

Purpose: and postoperative healthcare-associated infections. We used prospectively collected data to evaluate whether CFU would be a reliable criterion for hospitals to assess anesthesiologists' contributions to postoperative infections. Methods: During the summer of 2025, reservoirs (e.g., anesthetist's hands at case start/end) were sampled during 81 cesarean delivery cases performed in the same operating room. There were ≤ 15 reservoirs sampled per case. Results: > 0.99). Conclusions: transmission. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44254-026-00169-y.