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General Operating Theatre Design
Mar.23, 2009 in Design Process
General Operating Theatre Design
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Designing an operating theatre outlines the intricacies of the hospital design process. An
operating theatre suite consists of the Theatre, the Anaesthetic room, Scrub room and the Dirty
Utility (or just Utility) room. We will look at planning just the Operating Theatre itself in this
hospital design guide article.
The size and room dimensions vary but as an indication it should be about 7 meters wide by 8
meters long (56 square meters).
Any surgeon will tell you that over-riding principles while designing an operating theatre are:
• Flexibility of use of the space;
• Ease of cleaning the theatre – including the floor, walls, surgeons panel and any
equipment such as pendants and theatre lights;
• Ease of use of surgeons panels, theatre lights and pendants.
There are different arguments for either having all equipment and instruments on mobile trolleys
to allow 100% flexibility on use of the theatre and ease of cleaning the theatre versus mounting a
great majority of equipment on ceiling mounted theatre pendants. The ceiling slab must be able
to hold the weight of the theatre lights, pendants and the equipment if mounted on the pendants.
It is highly recommended that you check with your structural engineer.
Ceiling Mounted Equipment:
1. Pendants
Expect a Surgical and an Anaesthetic Pendant in any theatre which have power, data and various
gas outlets. There are several major suppliers on the market with numerous different types.
Pendants can be rigid, rigid, retractable or fully articulated. Theatres require fully articulated
pendants for maximum flexibility. A lot of co-ordination is required between medical gas,
electrical, and pendant trade contractors together with electrical, mechanical and structural
engineers/consultants while installing pendants to ensure all structural steel support is in place,
gas pipes are properly connected and power and data cables run at the correct programmed dates.
Various life saving equipment must be powered off Un-interruptible Power Socket(s) – UPS, in
case of power failure during surgery.
2. Theatre Lights
There used to be the Gas Discharge lights or Halogen lights. Aspects to consider were bulb life,
costs associated and Theatre down time while bulbs were changed.
There is a new kid on the block in the last couple of years – LED technology. About 30% more
expensive compared to the existing technology but very long life bulbs (over 20,000 hours), ease
of maintenance (couple of minutes to replace an LED), cheap cost of replacement (fraction of
older technology) and ability to vary light temperature hence helping to diagnose cancerous cells
etc.
Theatre Lights must be backed up by a battery back up in case of power failure during surgery.
Suggested time can be 3 hours back up. Note that general lighting and emergency escape lighting
should also be on similar battery/UPS back up time.
3. Camera
In a teaching facility, a camera (now a days High Definition Camera) and microphone is also
required for one way video (from Operating Theatre to Lecture Theatre and/or Seminar Rooms)
and two-way audio for surgeons and students to communicate. The camera can either be installed
in the handle of the main Theatre Light of installed on a separate ceiling mounted arm. Consider
all implications for power and data transfer (HD requires much higher bit rate transfer). Consider
a wireless Reality TV / Big Brother style microphone on the surgeon to allow freedom of
movement.
In Orthopaedic Theatres you would need to consider the largest ceiling mounted item – The
Laminar Flow or the Ultra Clean Ventilation (UCV) Canopy. This item will need a separate
article as we are planning a general Theatre in this article.
Wall Mounted Equipment:
1. Surgeons Panel
The panels can the older style steel type or the more current Membrane Type panels which allow
ease of cleaning/disinfection. The membrane can be made anti-microbial by inclusion of silver
nitrate. A newer version of panels can be touch screen however its not proving very popular as it
can take several screen touches to reach a certain function, whereas other two panel types have
all the buttons available in the panel.
For ease of cleaning and aesthetics, the panels should be flush mounted.
Note that all the pendants, theatre lights, general lights, gas alarm panel, IPS/UPS, and warning
signs for X-Ray in-use / Laser in-use signs outside Theatre, air sampling ducts, clocks etc need
considered and carefully co-ordinated among the trade contractors and design consultants for
services and wiring.
Floor Mounted Equipment:
1. Theatre Table
Generally these are rechargeable and don’t necessarily require power socket close by.
2. Trolleys
Trolleys are used for instruments and equipment such as video endoscopes and anaesthetic
equipment.
We mentioned ease of cleaning at the start. To enable this the walls should have special plastic
enamel paint to allow chemical cleaning if required in case of disinfection. The ceiling is
generally constructed of plaster board or special metal to ensure it is air-tight and easily cleaned.
Airflow regime is an important part of moving the air from clean areas towards dirty and out of
the Operating Theatre suite to ensure the Theatre is the most clean environment for operating on
the patients.
I trust the above has given you some basics to consider when planning your next operating
theatre.
About the Author:
Harry McQue is a hospital design manager with three masters degrees including business
management and information technology. Harry has 15 years of international experience ranging
from working on hospital projects in Dubai (Middle East) to over £1 Billion hospital projects in
the UK. You can benefit from his experience at: www.hospitaldesigntips.com. If there are topics
that you would like his advice on, you can get in touch on
Harry_Mcque@HospitalDesignTips.com
Copyright 2008, http://www.hospitaldesigntips.com. Reproduction by permission only. Please
contact harry_mcque@hospitaldesigntips.com for permissions and advice.
Any broken link? Please let us know at harry_mcque@hospitaldesigntips.com

Tags: design guide for ot, design hospital theater, designing operation theatre, floor walls, gas
outlets, gas pipes, halogen lights, hospital design, hospital design theatre, hospital design tips,
medical gas, medical theatre design, operating suite, operating theater, operating theatre,
operating theatre guide, operation basics, operation theatre design, ot design, ot equipment,
pendants, power failure, room dimensions, steel support, structural engineer, theatre basics, trade
contractors, ups
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