In Reply

Abstract

We thank Tafelski et al. for making some interesting points about our recent study1 and asking for clarification of some issues. We agree that for various reasons, our results may be an underestimate, and we discussed these in some length in our article. With respect to the Hawthorne effect, we agree that our findings may reflect an underestimation of the actual rate of syringe contamination. Indeed, in the article, we indicated that “anesthesiologists were encouraged to behave ‘normally’ in respect of their aseptic practice,” but that “the open-label nature of the study may have influenced them to be more fastidious.”