Thursday, February 14, 2008

STEAM STERILIZATION

One of the efforts to avoid infection control in hospital is through an effective sterilization process. One of the most efficient and effective sterilization method is steam sterilization. Steam can kill microorganism by denaturizing and coagulating protein cell irreversibly. To produce sterile goods, pre-sterilization treatment (decontaminated and good cleaning, good packing) and post-sterilization (storage) must be well implemented. The perfect of steam sterilization process depends on decreasing process of the number of microorganism before sterilization through good cleaning and avoiding the occurred of recontamination before being used.


Steam sterilization machine
Basically there are two kinds of steam sterilization machine:
a.Steam sterilization machine gravity type: air is taken out from chamber by gravity.
b.Steam sterilization machine pre-vacuum type: air is taken out from chamber by a vacuum pump. In a sterilization process using pre-vacuum system usually sterilization time runs faster because the speed of air expulsion runs better.

Steam quality
Steam quality is very important toward the success and effectiveness of sterilization process. If the steam is too dry or wet, its penetration ability will be disturbed. A good quality steam has 97% of dry fraction ( on 0-100% scale, 0 refers to a very high water content while 100% refers to steam without water content at all).

Pressure of steam supply
It’s better to be checked every week by engineering department of the hospital so that it meets the specific requirements of the manufacturer.

Putting goods into machine
Goods arranging in the sterilization machine is one of the decisive factors in the success of sterilization process. A right goods arranging will make the air expulsion process from the chamber runs easily, will make steam easily penetrates into the packing and will avoid the forming of too much condensate that may cause the packing moist. Linen packing should be positioned vertically so that steam will penetrate into the packing easily. The goods loading into machine’s chamber should use 75% of chamber capacity.

Taking out goods from steam sterilization machine
Let goods be in the machine’s chamber until all steam out from the chamber and the sterile goods are in cooling down process. Forcing the cooling down process by using fan or AC blower is not recommended. Goods in cooling down process have to be placed in an area which is not too crowded with activities. To avoid microorganism infiltrating to the packing, the sterile goods can be handled only after perfectly cold. When cooling down process is still taking place , the sterile goods are not allowed to be placed on the metal surface for the condensation process will occurred toward goods so that there will be recontamination. Sterile goods must be stored in a wire rack until becoming cold.

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