Bacteriological monitoring of water reservoirs in oxygen humidifiers: safety of prolonged and multipatient use of prefilled disposable oxygen humidifier bottles.
Bacterial colony counts in water specimens from oxygen humidifiers that used reusable water reservoirs were compared with counts in water specimens from humidifiers that used prefilled disposable reservoir bottles to evaluate the effects of prolonged and multipatient use of humidifiers. Bacteria were detected after 1 week of operation in water specimens collected from many humidifiers with reusable reservoirs, but no bacteria were detected in water specimens from disposable bottles for up to 12 weeks during use of the humidifier by multiple patients.
Department of Microbiology, Saitama Medical School, Moroyama, Iruma-gun, Saitama, Japan.
Nobuharu
N
Kobayashi
Tsutomu
T
Yamazaki
Shigefumi
S
Maesaki
D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004209:Disposable Equipment / Q000382:microbiology*; D004865:Equipment and Supplies, Hospital / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety; D014871:Water Microbiology