title: The sterilization efficacy of reprocessed single use diathermy pencils.
abstract: In Brazil, single use diathermy pencils (SUDP) are among the most common reused devices. This study assesses the sterilization efficacy of reprocessing SUDP using two cleansing methods (manual or automated), followed by one of three of the low-temperature sterilization methods: Hydrogen Peroxide Plasma (HPP), Ethylene Oxide (ETO) or Low-Temperature Steam Formaldehyde (LTSF). The sample was composed of 360 SUDP after their first use. The probability of sterilization failure was estimated considering the number of positive microbiological results obtained by cultures of the studied devices. The overall sterilization failure probability for SUDP was 0.26. The sterilization method, which presented the lowest failure probability was the LTSF (0.01), followed by ETO (0.21) and HPP (0.56). Automated cleansing obtained a better result than manual cleansing. This trial demonstrated that the probability of sterilization in reprocessed SUDP is highly dependent on both the type of cleansing and the sterilization method applied.
authors.affiliation: Material and Sterilization Center, Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil. sibane@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Batista Neto
authors.forename: Kazuko Uchikawa
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Graziano
authors.forename: Maria Clara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Padoveze
authors.forename: Júlia Yaeko
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kawagoe
mesh_terms: D003972:Diathermy; D017743:Equipment Reuse; D005027:Ethylene Oxide; D006801:Humans; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D013242:Sterilization / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D005027:Ethylene Oxide