Call me sterile: use of a novel, 3-dimensionally printed sterile guard reduces contamination risk during aseptic smartphone insertion into toggle-lock waterproof phone cases.

A 3D-printed sterile guard eliminates contamination events when placing smartphones into toggle-lock waterproof cases intraoperatively.

This prospective randomized crossover study evaluated contamination risk during intraoperative smartphone placement into waterproof phone cases and assessed whether a novel 3D-printed sterile guard could mitigate that risk. Conducted over 5 days in an academic hospital setting, 12 operating room technicians performed 100 total simulations using a 3D-printed smartphone model coated in Glo Germ powder—a fluorescent contamination indicator—inserted into two waterproof case designs: a toggle-lock case (TgLC) and a twist-lock case. Use of the sterile guard was alternated daily between case designs. A UV flashlight was used to detect contamination events following each simulation. Results demonstrated a 22% contamination rate (11/50 simulations) when the sterile guard was not used, with all contamination events occurring exclusively with the TgLC design at the toggle-locking mechanism. Critically, no contamination events occurred across all 50 simulations when the sterile guard was employed. The study highlights that intraoperative smartphone use for videography and photography is common in veterinary medicine, and that sterile field integrity can be compromised during phone case closure. The 3D-printed sterile guard significantly reduced contamination events with the TgLC design, and the twist-lock case design may offer a lower-risk alternative when a sterile guard is unavailable. These findings have direct implications for maintaining aseptic technique in veterinary surgical suites.

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