What's the BIG IDEA?

I greatly admire innovators. Sure, discoverers and pioneers are daring and courageous because they seek something that appears unattainable (like the summit of Mt. Everest or a cure for pneumonia).

Innovators are different because they find a new way, a smarter way to do something that already exists. The iPod is an innovation that replaced tapes and CDs.

Surgeons can be great innovators, too, and the simplest tweaks often generate the most profound results.

Take surgical drapes as an example. These are large disposable sheets of plastic-lined paper that are used to create a sterile field in the operating room. Typically, the patient's body is totally covered in these sterile paper drapes - even for eye surgery. The surgical team wears gloves and gowns and all of the surgical equipment that enters the surgical field is also sterile.

There can be problems with paper drapes. They are big and bulky. They are relatively expensive. They are flammable. Yes, the surgical drapes can catch fire, and you'd be surprised how often fires erupt in the O.R. There are plenty of sparks, plenty of fuel, and lots of heat in a busy operating room. Surgical lasers are particularly dangerous, but even routine cautery (applied to stop bleeding) can ignite an inferno. This is a ripe opportunity for innovation!

Ophthalmologists at Brown University developed surgical drapes made of aluminum foil. This flexible material is lightweight, nonflammable, easy to manipulate, sterilizable, and cheaper than disposable paper drapes. Ophthalmologists at Brown used aluminum foil surgical draping in 300 surgical cases and presented their results at the recent Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

The team reported exciting news: no infections, no fires, and no patient-related complications. It appears that a major hospital safety threat can be eliminated.

Will aluminum foil totally replace paper drapes? It's doubtful. Since aluminum is a powerful conductor of electrical current it may not be suitable for some cases when electrical energy is applied, perhaps planned cardioversion following heart surgery. Accidental contact between a live electrical lead and the foil drape could cause serious injury.

More studies will be needed before aluminum foil makes its way into mainstream surgical practice. In the meantime innovators will keep dreaming up ways to build that better mousetrap!

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