Medical device disinfection by dense carbon dioxide

SummaryThe employment of disinfection–sterilisation processes for the re-use of medical devices without negative effects such as the presence of toxic residues, material degradation or other modifications is an important consideration for reducing the costs of surgical and medical procedures. Ethylene oxide is the most commonly used low temperature sterilisation technique in healthcare facilities, but its associated toxicity has reduced interest in this technology for the reprocessing of medical equipment. The aim of this study was to examine the disinfection efficiency of a novel low temperature approach, based on dense carbon dioxide on artificially contaminated catheters. The results obtained demonstrated that this method provided a complete inactivation of all bacteria and yeast strains tested, and that no obvious modifications to the surfaces tested were observed with multiple treatments.