set went to 270°F and therefore met the standard of the autoclaving.
We call it proof of sterility when the dot on the orange plastic padlock
changes from blue to black and when a strip on a white ID card
changes from white to black.
Finally, a Halyard Health-funded study in the December 2015
American Journal of Infection Control (osmag.net/qWr2WZ) calls into
question the widely held assumption that rigid containers, regardless
of duration of use, can maintain the sterility of their contents pre-ster-
ilization. When compared to rigid containers, wrapped instrument
trays had no detectable contamination while 87% of tested rigid con-
tainers allowed bacterial contamination under the test condition used.
The study also found that rigid containers may be less effective the
longer they are in use: Rigid containers with 5 to 9 years of use were
significantly more likely to have bacterial ingress than unused rigid
containers.
OSM
M A R C H 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 7
Mr. Corona (george.corona@ hcahealthcare.com) is the interim
supervisor/manager of the sterile processing department at the Texas Orthopedic
Hospital in Houston, Texas.
