5.3.1　General Principles of Building Decoration

(1) The decoration of the clean operating department must satisfy the functional requirements for use as well as the process requirements of the clean air-conditioning system.

(2) The decoration must be safe and firm, not easily damaged by impact or prone to collapse, and comply with relevant fire protection requirements. (3) Decorative surface layer. It is required to be easy to clean and disinfect, with a good environmental spatial effect.

5.3.2 Requirements for the Selection of Decoration Materials

(1) Smooth and clean surface, wear-resistant, erosion-resistant (physical, chemical), and non-dust-generating.

(2) Materials should be easy to clean and disinfect, non-hygroscopic, moisture-impermeable, and not prone to mold growth.

(3) Materials should have good environmental protection, energy-saving, and anti-static functions.

(4) Decoration materials must be non-combustible or flame-retardant materials, economical and practical, and easy to process.

5.3.3 Decoration Forms of the Clean Operating Department

(1) Monolithic (integral) type. Built (or welded) on site, ground to be flat, and then finished with surface materials. The advantages are seamless integrity, easy cleaning, no dust accumulation, and a good environmental spatial effect, but every link in the on-site construction process must be well controlled, especially the bonding treatment between the base layer and the surface layer; otherwise, quality is difficult to guarantee and the construction period is long.

(2) Assembled (prefabricated) type. Designed into several standard modules according to the size of the operating room, produced in the factory and then assembled on site. Because of the high degree of standardization and mechanization, quality is easier to guarantee and the construction period is shorter, but there are seams, and the spatial effect is not as good as that of the monolithic type.

5.3.4 Decoration Materials for Clean Operating Rooms

(1) Decoration materials for the clean operating department are divided into two major categories: floor materials and wall materials. There are more than a dozen optional materials, with different functions and effects. The currently common materials can be roughly divided into the following types.

1) Floor materials.

① Monolithic cast-in-place terrazzo: Terrazzo floors are abundant in resources in China and commonly used. They were widely used in hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and other places in the 1950s. They have the advantages of wear resistance, slip resistance, and corrosion resistance, with good quality and low price, and are representative in the Chinese construction market. Therefore, they are widely adopted in general clean operating rooms.

② Epoxy resin: An epoxy resin floor is a chemical product synthesized from unsaturated resin, with advantages such as corrosion resistance, easy cleaning, and no dust generation. When used, a base layer should be made on the ordinary cement floor, and then the epoxy resin is cast on top. Its greatest advantage is a flat, smooth surface that is easy to clean, but the price is relatively expensive.

③ PVC flooring: PVC flooring is a derivative of engineering plastics, divided into ordinary PVC flooring and anti-static PVC flooring. Its advantages are corrosion resistance, easy cleaning, anti-static properties, and convenient construction and installation. It is widely used in current operating rooms.

2) Wall materials.

① ES panel (commonly known as color steel panel): The color steel panel is a lightweight partition material consisting of color-coated steel strips on both sides with thermal insulation material sandwiched in the middle. It does not accumulate dust, is easy to clean, and has certain impact resistance. However, the surface is prone to fading after long-term use, and damage to the coating on the steel strip surface easily leads to oxidation. In terms of fire protection rating, it should meet the performance requirements of fire resistance rating B2 or above.

② Anti-rust aluminum panel: The national standard model is LF121. It is a silvery-white light metal with characteristics such as low specific gravity, low melting point, good thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and corrosion resistance, and is easy to process and weld. The surface can be spray-coated with plastic or finished with baked enamel, making it a good material for operating room walls.

③ CLASAL panel: The CLASAL panel is made by synthesizing high-density cement and silica under high-temperature and high-pressure equipment, then spraying inorganic pigments on the surface, and finally coating the surface with a special ceramic film at high temperature. It has advantages such as being washable and disinfectable, good fire resistance and strength, and no scratches, bumps, or deformation.

④ Composite aluminum panel: Generally called the aluminum-plastic panel, its outer surface is a 0.15～0.2mm aluminum panel, and the inner side is bonded with polyurethane (or other thermal insulation materials). The two are bonded and pressed together with glue. It has low strength, is not impact-resistant, and is extremely prone to deformation and damage.

⑤ Steel panel: An electrolytic steel panel with 10～12mm gypsum board attached to the back. After the steel panel surface is ground flat and sprayed with antibacterial coating 2～3 times, the whole is flat and smooth, seamless, and easy to clean and disinfect.

⑥ Stainless steel panel: It has properties such as high strength, impact resistance, and corrosion resistance. After surface treatment, the stainless steel panel will not produce glare or dazzling effects. It is a good material for use in the envelope structure of operating rooms, but the price is high.

5.3.5 Points to Note in Clean Operating Room Decoration

The general principle for interior decoration of a clean operating room is: surfaces must be flat and smooth, free of dust generation, and must not accumulate dust. All materials in the operating room must not crack or accumulate dust after absorbing moisture. Materials that continuously release volatile chemical substances are strictly prohibited. Instruments, devices, and electrical equipment in the operating room should all be embedded in the walls to prevent dust accumulation on their surfaces. The junction between the floor and the walls must be rounded. There should be no grooves or recesses on the floor to prevent the accumulation of dirt.

(1) Within the clean operating department, cleaning should be facilitated and dead corners where pollutants accumulate should be avoided; therefore, the floor treatment must be rounded, and other internal and external corners should also be rounded.

(2) The key aspects of a clean operating room are air purification and airflow organization, so the door of the clean operating room should be a suspended automatic sliding door to prevent interference and contamination from outside airflow. In addition, since the door is often left open during surgery, causing the loss of positive pressure, the door should be equipped with an automatic delayed-closing device.

(3) Wall sockets, medicine cabinets, ceiling lamps, and other fixtures in the clean operating room should all be flush-mounted. Joints between different materials must be flat and sealed to ensure the airtightness of the operating room and to avoid dust and bacterial accumulation on protruding or uneven parts.

(4) Decoration materials for the clean operating room must be green and environmentally friendly; materials that continuously release volatile organic chemical substances (such as organic coatings and bonding adhesives) are not allowed, as they would affect the physical and mental health of patients and medical staff (in operating rooms for in vitro fertilization, it is essential to ensure they are non-toxic and odorless; otherwise, the quality of the procedure will be affected).

(5) Clean operating rooms should not have exterior windows, mainly to avoid the influence of outdoor light on surgery and contamination of the operating room by the outdoor environment. Class Ⅲ and Ⅳ clean auxiliary rooms may be equipped with double-layer sealed windows.

(6) No access openings should be provided in the ceiling of a clean operating room. Therefore, when selecting a surgical pendant, a model with side connections should be chosen as far as possible to avoid having to open an inspection port in the ceiling. When the selected pendant requires an additional inspection port, this port should be no larger than 400mm×400mm, should not allow a person to pass through, and must be strictly sealed.