Airflow Organisation for Reducing Thermal Disparities Amongst Surgical Staff While Maintaining Air Cleanliness in Operating Rooms

Operating room ventilation systems are designed to ensure air cleanliness and reduce the risk of surgical site infections. However, the thermal comfort of surgical staff is often overlooked. The present study investigated whether airflow organisation can reduce thermal disparities amongst surgical team members while maintaining air cleanliness. A typical operating room was modelled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Laminar airflow (LAF) and temperature-controlled airflow (TAF) were compared in terms of airflow structure, temperature distribution and the transport of bacteria-carrying particles (BCPs). Thermal sensation was evaluated using the predicted mean vote (PMV) index. The results showed that TAF introduced zonal airflow with differentiated temperature supply, reducing recirculation and stagnation while maintaining effective contaminant removal. Compared with LAF, TAF reduced the surgeon's PMV from 0.83 to 0.30 and narrowed the PMV difference between the surgeon and circulating nurse from 0.72 to 0.17 and between the surgeon and anaesthetist from 1.69 to 1.36. BCP concentrations in the protected zone remained negligible under both systems, while elevated levels in peripheral areas were effectively reduced under TAF. These findings demonstrate that optimised airflow organisation can alleviate thermal demand disparities amongst surgical staff without compromising air cleanliness, offering guidance for the design of operating room ventilation systems.