ST. LOUIS – Surgeries have resumed at the Veterans Affairs hospital in St. Louis more than a month after a shutdown over sterilization concerns.
The John Cochran VA Medical Center suspended surgeries Feb. 2 after surgical trays were found to be pitted with corrosion. Procedures resumed Thursday.
Hospital director Rima Nelson says investigators who examined the sterilization processing department determined it was OK to start surgeries again. Nelson says they couldn't determine a single source for the corrosion.
The sterilization concern was the second in less than a year at the Cochran center.
Faulty sterilization at the center's dental clinic last year raised concerns that 1,812 veterans were potentially exposed to hepatitis and HIV. Most of those veterans have been tested and no such infections have been connected to the dental clinic.
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