Recently we removed all jugs, bowls, and kidney dishes out of all instrument sets. Reason given, Possible compromising of the sterilisation process.

To my dismay we then turned around and replace them with tin foil dishes. Reason, they are light in weight.

We use a Prevac Steam Steriliser.
Can someone please help me understand this!

Kind regards
Kathy Irwin

Dear Kathy,

I don't see the problem with the sterilization of kidney bowls etc. (see also questions Q00151 and Q00143). You just have to take care that the sterilant can reach all surfaces that have to be sterilised and that the condensate is carried off the load well. I.e.bowls must preferably be placed on their side.

Furthermore you have to be aware of contact corrosion if you replace stainless steel recipients by recipients made of other metals. Contact corrosion is caused by two different metals that get in close contact in the presence of an electrolyte i.e.water or steam. Hereby rust can be formed on the contact surfaces. The contact causes electrolysis where the least precious metal takes up the role of the anode to attack the more precious metals. Particularly severe contact corrosion occurs if stainless steel instruments get in contact with non stainless goods such as needles, cutters etc. (ref: Proper maintenance of instruments, working group instrument preparation, www.a-k-i.org)

Kind regards,
Wim Renders

Hello Kathy,

When I read your problem I can understand you are confused about what is happening. I fully agree with the reply of Wim Renders. If bowls, jugs and kidney dishes are placed in a instrument tray in a proper way there is no reason to remove them because of compromising the sterilisation process. If not properly placed they can cause drying problems which, of course, should be a reason to mark the wet goods as "not sterile". However the sterilisation process itself, in a pre-vacuum steriliser, will never be disturbed by the mentioned items. They are actually the goods which are giving the smallest problems during validation as the thin stainless steel can easily be heated up. So I cannot think of any reason to change to thinner foil type dishes, there is certainly no need to do this for sterilisation cycle reasons.
I trust this answer is satisfactory for you but, if not, do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Best Regards,
Henk Ras

Sanamij B.V. - Rotterdam, The Netherlands

www.sanamij.com

Hi there,

Just to clarify

The removal of bowls, kidney dishes and jugs from sets is because of the amount of instruments that are in a sets and having problems with sets being wet after sterilisation.

Since the removal of bowls and jugs from the sets the problem of wet trays has decreased considerably.

Sets are placed on the steriliser trolley flat as they are perforated, the bowls etc are not tilted as it states in the standards AS4187 that all bowls must be tilted for drainage and air removal.

Tin foil dishes are very light in weight and do not hold the heat as solid metal items do. They are only used in two sets that have very few instruments in.

Regards
Judy