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Although the clean air environment brought about a dramatic fall in infection rates, Charnley wasn’t satisfied.
Charnley wanted to eliminate the ‘hard core’ of 1.5% that became infected during surgery and believed the culprits were the bacteria introduced by him and his theatre staff.
He designed a cloth hood and gown which would be donned like a night shirt, over the head. Charnley knew that exhalation could be a source of bacterial infection, brought straight to the wound by the air downflow experienced in clean air theatres. Consequently, he introduced a tube near the mouth and nose which sucked expired air out of the costume and the theatre.
Through his collaboration with Hugh Howorth, the cloth hood evolved into a helmet, which evacuated expelled air, and a one-piece gown that dropped over the helmet and was totally free at the neck and waist.
The Full Body Exhaust system was eventually introduced at Wrightington in 1970. This and further refinements to operating theatres succeeded in reducing the infection rate to 0.5%.
