Dr. Georgia Alevizopoulou provides an insight into the optimisation of VHP low temperature sterilisation processes to ensure safe and effective reprocessing of medical devices.
Healthcare facilities are increasingly using vaporised hydrogen peroxide (VHP) as part of their decontamination strategies.
Over the past few years, our familiarity with vaporised hydrogen peroxide low temperature sterilisation (VH2O2) has increased significantly and we have seen growing adoption of the associated technology, equipment, and consumables within many sterile service departments, across the globe. Healthcare facilities choose VH2O2 technology typically as a method of choice for sterilisation of heat and moisture sensitive medical devices.
In some situations, facilities may additionally use VH2O2 cycles for more applications, when, for example, they wish to accelerate the availability and the throughput of devices that would normally undergo a steam process, or to process semi-critical devices, because they can then be stored as sterile devices in readiness for patient use – helping to promote the highest level of patient care. Figure 1 shows a representation of devices typically processed in VH2O2 sterilisers.
Log in or register FREE to read the rest
This story is Premium Content and is only available to registered users. Please log in at the top of the page to view the full text.
If you don't already have an account, please register with us completely free of charge.
