Reusable medical devices are instruments that can be reused by health care professionals. For example, surgical forceps, stethoscopes, endoscopes, etc. Reusable surgical instruments are of different shapes and sizes. After being used ones they become contaminated with microorganisms. To avoid the risk due to contamination, they go through reprocessing. They are cleaned and disinfected. They have expensive components that must be disinfected and sterilized delicately. This process is vital to ensure the safety of patients.
The process to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms from reusable medical devices is termed disinfection. Various liquid chemicals and methods of wet pasteurization are used to disinfect surgical instruments. The process of disinfection makes the reusable surgical instruments safe to use again.
The efficacy of the process of disinfection can be affected by various variables which might limit or at times nullify the efficacy. Various factors that affect the efficacy of the process include:
- The level of microbial contamination
- Physical nature of the device
- The exposure time of the device to the germicide used
- The concentration of the used germicide
- The complexity of the device
- The pH of the disinfection agent
Before the decontamination agents are selected, one must understand the terms that are used in the product’s description. The labels ended with ‘cide’ or ‘cidal’ are used to describe the products used for killing action. For example, germs are killed by germicide. Fungicide is used to kill the fungus. Bactericides are used to kill bacteria.
When disinfectants are being select, an individual should check if there is a balance between the efficacy of germicides and user safety. They should be non-toxic and non-sensitizing. This will ensure that they won’t damage the environment when disposed of.
The process of disinfection is not sporicidal like the process of sterilization. Numerous commercially available disinfectants are approved for the disinfection of reusable surgical instruments. If the exposure time is prolonged, then the spores will be killed. To kill microorganisms, a shorter exposure period works perfectly. To determine the appropriate exposure and concentration, the manufacturing labels of the disinfectant should be referred to.
The disinfectant manufacturer’s instructions for use must be fully followed. And they should ensure that those instructions are validated and approved. If they are not, then the individual cannot be sure if the disinfectant is providing 100% efficacy on every cycle of reprocessing. One of the most important things is to track and trace medical devices through the decontamination process. It helps to identify corrective action if required. For example, if the cycle fails, then the products can be recalled.
At Safson instruments we ensure that the reusable surgical instruments are designed in a way that they can be easily and quickly reprocessed and thus reused. We are well-experienced in producing such products through our reuse validation plan. The material we use is biocompatible and the physical design is not complex at all. We thoroughly examine the ways our designs can hinder the process of reprocessing and then we eliminate them. We understand how device designs affect the process, therefore our engineers spend a huge amount of time ensuring accurate designing and then proceed with it.
The safety of patients comes first before anything else. Our instruments are designed in such a way that they can be reused effectively without any hindrance in disinfection.