There’s a bit of good news coming out of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta for patients undergoing surgery or an invasive procedure, their surgeons and cost-conscious hospital administrators. It's standard practice for the surgeon or their designate, (in consultation with the patient when possible), to mark the operative/invasive site using a marking pen before an operation, a precaution to ensure surgeons cut the correct spot. But there was concern that germs would be spread from one patient to the next, so it has also become common procedure to throw away the marker each time, costing thousands of dollars a year.
Turns out hospital staff were putting too fine a point on it, say a couple of infection control specialists at the U of A who looked into the matter. Associate professor Dr. Sarah Forgie of the Department of Pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases resident Dr. Catherine Burton have shown that the tips of the Sharpies® don't spread infection since the ink has an alcohol base.