Central Service - Issue 4/2014
 NEWS UPDATE
- What's New in Standardisation: Second enquiry
- CEFH Congress in France: training and outpatient surgery in the spotlight: 36th National Sterilization Days in Reims, 9 - 10 April 2014
- The ghosts of sterilization. 10th Swiss Sterilization Conference, Biel, 18 - 19 June 2014
- First cross-border exchange of experiences between CSSD managers from the regions of Oldenburg/Lower Saxony and Groningen/Netherlands
- New Editorial Board Member: Tony McLoughlin
REVIEW
M. Borneff-Lipp, D. Worlitzsch, M. Chwoika, M. Dürr:
Low-temperature sterilization processes Pros and cons as reported over two decades in Central Service
Abstract
There are different technologies on the market for use in low-temperature (LT) sterilization processes for reprocessing medical devices in industrial settings, in central sterile supply departments (CSSDs) or in decentralized, possibly mobile, units. To mark the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the journal Central Service, published by mhp-Verlag, Wiesbaden, this review article now aims to highlight developments in these processes against a background of continuing controversial debates. The data on which this review is based have been obtained from articles and readers' letters published in Central Service and other mhp-Verlag publications as well as from conference reports on sterilization with ethylene oxide (EO), low-temperature formaldehyde steam sterilization (LTSF), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and other alternative low-temperature processes.
Keywords:
LT sterilization processes EO sterilization LTSF sterilization H2O2 gas sterilization
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
J.P.C.M. van Doornmalen, F. Tessarolo, K. Kopinga:
Measurements of only pressure and temperature are insufficient to monitor steam sterilization processes: a case study
Abstract
Worldwide, hospitals and health-care facilities, such as dentist offices, use steam sterilization to produce sterile medical instruments. To ensure sterilization conditions "routine monitoring and control shall be performed on each operating cycle" [1]. In some West European countries this monitoring is performed with measurements of pressure (p) and temperature (T) over time. The pressure is measured in the chamber and the temperature often in the drain of the sterilizer. Based on a real case study, in this paper it is shown that p- and T-measurements alone are not always sufficient to ensure sterilization conditions in steam sterilization processes.
Keywords:
steam sterilization monitoring steam penetration hollow channels
LETTERS
Are we validating with disregard to the clinical reality?
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations by the «Committee for Hygiene, Construction and Technology»:
Requirements for construction or reconstruction of a Reprocessing Unit for Medical Devices (RUMED). Part 1 - Basics
DGSV
Recommendations by the «Quality Task Group»:
Programme Controls Part 1: Washer-disinfectors with a thermal and chemothermal disinfection cycle
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