6 Common Sterilizers for Hospital Sterilization Uses

Sterilization is of great importance to keep patients and medical  professionals healthy and safe as it reduces the risk of infection, disease and death by inactivating bacteria on the surface of medical devices and in the air and surroundings. Sterilization can be complicated as the items to be sterilized differs in properties and sterilization purposes are not always the same. Hence, there are many types of sterilizers is designed for different uses. This article is going to introduce 6 common sterilizers dedicated for certain sterilizing methods in hospitals.

Steam Sterilization

Steam sterilization is the most dependable among all the sterilization methods. The saturated steam provides moist heat to quickly kill the bacteria and heats and penetrates fabrics. In the process of steam sterilization, the item is exposed to direct steam contact at the required pressure and temperature for the specified time. Hence, steam, temperature, pressure and time are for parameters of steam sterilization, which vary depending on the type of item.

The gravity displacement autoclave and the high-speed prevacuum sterilizer are the two basic types of steam sterilizers (autoclaves).

The gravity displacement autoclave is mainly used to deal with water, regulated medical waste, pharmaceutical products, and nonporous articles whose surfaces have direct steam contact. In a high-speed prevacuum sterilizer, the steam can instantaneously penetrate into porous loads, whereas the gravity displacement autoclave need a longer time due to incomplete air elimination.

Dry-Heat Sterilization

Dry-heat sterilization should be used only for materials that might be damaged by moist heat or that are impenetrable to moist heat. For example, powders, petroleum products, sharp instruments, etc. There are two types of dry-heat sterilizers: the static-air type and the forced-air type. The static-air type is also called an oven-type sterilizer. When it works, the temperature gradually rises as the coils heat the air at the bottom triggering the gravity convection. The forced-air or mechanical convection sterilizer requires less time to reach sterilizing temperature as a motor-driven blower inside the chamber circulates heated air at a high velocity.

Hydrogen Peroxide Gas Plasma Sterilization

The use of hydrogen peroxide gas plasma sterilization is adopted when sterilizing materials and devices that cannot tolerate high temperatures and humidity, such as electrical devices, some plastics, and corrosion-susceptible metal alloys.  Hydrogen peroxide gas plasma kills microorganisms primarily by the combined use of hydrogen peroxide gas and the generation of free radicals (hydroxyl and hydroproxyl free radicals) during the plasma phase of the cycle. The process should be carried out in a dedicated H2O2 plasma sterilizer. A sterilization process consists of several cycles, each cycle consisting of five steps: evacuation, hydrogen peroxide injection, diffusion, plagiarisation and ventilation.