How to Sterilize and Preserve Orthopedic Instruments

Patient safety is essential, and for this, all the health care workers and hospitals must make sure that the surgical instruments they use are sterile. Usually, surgeons end up using almost every tool on multiple patients. Besides, different doctors on the team may use some surgical tools in numerous departments. So, these tools may have exposure to various bacteria, germs, or harmful particles. If doctors carry out a simple cleaning after all this exposure to those multi-usage tools, it will not help. An instrument may seem clean on the surface, but it may have tiny micro bacteria, which can only go through sterilizing. Just keep these three steps that you need to follow in mind once you buy any medical supply:

• Wash
• Clean
• Sterilize

Sterilizing techniques

There is a difference between sterilization and chemical disinfection. It is essential to mention that the chemical procedure is not very effective. On the other hand, the process of sterilization includes three techniques. These are Ethylene oxide sterilization, dry heat sterilization, and sterilization glass.

• Ethylene oxide is used for those medical supplies that cannot tolerate high temperatures and steam sterilization
• In Steam sterilization, the surgical tools are placed in the steam under the pressure
• Glass sterilizers are the right equipment to sterilize the instrument during the surgical process. The sterilizing chamber is filled with glass beads and then heated to approximately 5000F. 

Here are a few steps you must take to clean and preserve the orthopedic instruments:

Clean And Dry Your Surgical Instruments After Using

Once you complete the procedure, there will be residue, and those residues will become the reason for staining if you do not rinse them right after. The recommended method is to use either cold or warm distilled water and add solutions pH below 10 to clean it. Do rinsing and then Sterilize it. To avoid water spots or corrosion, you must thoroughly take care of the dry instruments. Store instruments in the dry area and keep instruments like scissors or forceps in an open position.

Wash The Instruments

After the surgery, you must wash the instruments with warm water to wash away blood and tissue cells. If you do not wash it immediately, then dip the surgical instruments in PH 7 detergent. The total cycle of wash would be 5-10 minutes. To use the ultrasonic cleaner, you should submerge all the instruments. And later, use water to wash out all solution from the surgical supplies. Lastly, use a softer brush.

How to Preserve Orthopedic Instruments 

After the sterilization process, carefully put the surgical instruments in a sterilized box and a sterile atmosphere. You need to handle these instruments carefully. Also, for surgical tools like scissors and forceps, you must wash them open, so no particles remain inside the edges and so that the sterilizing is thorough.

When you purchase surgical instruments, learn how to wash, and clean them to avoid any infection. Peak Surgicals has a wide range of orthopedic instruments for you to buy, so explore our inventory and place your order.