Validación de los procedimientos de lavado manual y automático de instrumental quirúrgico previo a la esterilización

Abstract

Objective: to validate the manual and automated cleaning process of surgical instruments before their sterilization at the Sterilization Unit of a University Hospital. Method: a descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional study conducted between January, 2015 and September, 2017 at the Central Sterilization Unit of the Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca. The selection of surgical instruments for each type of cleaning was conducted according to their characteristics. The validation of automated cleaning was conducted through the Load Check by Browne and CliniChek USW by Clinichem residual contamination tests; and the manual cleaning was evaluated through the Resi-test protein test by Browne. Results: there were 134 residual control tests conducted in the automated wash: 56% were valid, while 44% of the controls contained visible rests of residual contamination, mainly due to mechanical problems during the procedure. For the manual cleaning validation, 85 protein tests were analyzed in total. There was no presence of proteins detected in the material before sterilization in 88.3% of cases. Conclusions: the incorporation of new techniques, such as protein or residual contamination tests, allow to conduct a validation of the cleaning process, both automatic and manual, controlling from the start the treatment of surgical materials, as well as to implement any adequate correcting measures in order to achieve the excellent sterilization of instruments.