Re: "Manager's Guide to Surgical Supplies" (October supplement). I am a board-certified plastic surgeon and I read each edition of your magazine. I'm writing to alert you to some disturbing photographs in your recent supplement.

• The cover shows broken-open boxes on the bottom shelf of the cupboards. These boxes should be 12 inches from the floor to maintain sterility.
• On the top shelf are boxes in cartons that weren't unloaded from the boxes they came in (the mailing labels are still on the boxes!).
• The nurse on the cover is carrying sterile items under her arm. This is poor form. She should have placed these items in a cart and wheeled them into the OR.
• Photos on pages 14 and 16 show OR personnel wearing garments beneath their scrubs - again, poor form and poor sterile technique.

These are not acceptable behaviors, but presenting them in the magazine makes it seem as though they are.

Francis J. Collini, MD, FACS
Shavertown, Pa.
writeMail("fcollini@collini.com")