Underwire bras in surgery

Argo · Oct 23, 2010

The issue with the bra is the space between the metal and the skin. The space allows do arching of electricity. With rings piercings that are tight to the skin or taped you will not get the arching.

sharkdiver · Oct 25, 2010

Electricity can't flow without a return path to ground and will follow the path of least resistance. That's the function of the bovie pad - to provide a return path to ground. The large size of the pad insures a low impedance path with a large surface area to keep the current density to a minimum.

The only way for the underwire to possibly cause an arc would be for the wire itself to come into direct contact with either the scalpel/electrocautery tool or a direct path to earth ground, and in the latter case it would have to be less resistance than the bovie pad to have any effect. Since the wire is contained in and electrically insulated by the cloth material of the bra, and the area is further covered by the surgical drape, there is virtually no possibility of this occurring. It's impossible to have any kind of arcing or current flow without a complete electrical circuit.

BridgetJones · Oct 25, 2010

Electricity can't flow without a return path to ground and will follow the path of least resistance. That's the function of the bovie pad - to provide a return path to ground. The large size of the pad insures a low impedance path with a large surface area to keep the current density to a minimum.
The only way for the underwire to possibly cause an arc would be for the wire itself to come into direct contact with either the scalpel/electrocautery tool or a direct path to earth ground, and in the latter case it would have to be less resistance than the bovie pad to have any effect. Since the wire is contained in and electrically insulated by the cloth material of the bra, and the area is further covered by the surgical drape, there is virtually no possibility of this occurring. It's impossible to have any kind of arcing or current flow without a complete electrical circuit.

Thanks, that made a lot of sense! I had forgotten about the "path of least resistance" principle. It's been a while since high school physical science. ;-)

mactheknife · Oct 25, 2010

I would be worried about the electricity aspect and also the possible risk of infection. How do you know the bra is clean?

I would definately remove any item of clothing that a patient is wearing in the OR.

Argo · Oct 25, 2010

Sharkdiver, the problem is that your leaving everything to theory. Reality and theory are two different things unfortunately. I have seen arching burns in reality that killed the theory stuff for me.