Thursday, February 14, 2013

INFECTION CONTROL 12


The Cycle of Operation
For a high-vacuum/high-pressure sterilizer, this can be summa­rized as follows:
      After loading the chamber and closing the door. The stages of autoclaving are:
•     Stage-1 Pre-vacuum—Air removal. The air is removed from the chamber by a vacuum pump and controlled steam pulsations. The vacuum achieved should be in the order of 0.5 mm Hg absolute (0.066 to 0.132 kPa).
•     Stage-2 Sterilization—Hold period at operating temperature. Steam is admitted to the chamber and when all parts of the load have reached a temperature of 134 degree C this is maintained for 3.5 minutes
•     Stage-3 Drying—Achieved by an adequate post vacuum, checked periodically by a test pack of towels which when removed from the sterilizer, unfolded and allowed to cool are not damp
•     Stage-4 Breaking the vacuum—Air replacement. This should be completed within 3 minutes, through a glass fiber or ceramic type filter
      The chamber is unloaded and the packs marked with the batch number of that particular load. Preset trays should have a water repellent or plastic dust cover applied if they are to be stored for more than a few hours. This cover should be applied only after the trays have cooled off.
      The recommended combination of time and temperature varies, and for instruments which can withstand moist heat under pressure the following cycles are recommended:
•     134°C (30 lb/in2) for a hold time of 3 minutes
•     121°C (15 lb/in2) for a hold time of 15 minutes.

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