hi

in the decontamination area we are using washer disinfectors decomat 8666 getinge and with disinfection temperature 93 degrees centegrat for 10 min when we remove the surgical instrument when the cycle is finished we noticed that there is a rusty spots on the surface of the surgical instrument. what is the reason of these spots and how can we solve it?

thank you
l.aljadi
CSSD

Hi.

93C for 10 min is too much, but this is not the cause for rusty spots. If your goods enter the WD free of rust, but they come out rusty it means that they are in a very aggresive environment! Your disinfectant solution is oxydating the material. You must follow up Gettinge instructions!

miki

Dear,

The AKI red brochure: "Proper maintenance of Instruments" (see on the EFHSS Education page, 3. Articles, Periodicals, Online publications) gives a lot of information on causes of problems with instruments.
Probably you can sort out your particular problem.

Good luck,
Wim Renders

Dear,

Surgical Stainless Steel instruments should be resistant against 93 °C disinfection temperature for 10 min in the washer disinfector Dekomat 8666.
These are the normal conditions for thermal disinfection for example in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

At first the surgical instruments should be investigated, if they have rust from outside or if a pitting corrosion results through the washer disinfector.

Rust from outside can be caused by dissolved iron or rust in feeding water for washer disinfector or by other instruments whiche doesn't consist of chromium steel, but of tool-steel. If these low quality instruments rust, this rust will be transmitted to other instruments during reprocessing in washer disinfector.

If the rust is caused by pitting corrosion probably chlorides are responsible for this kind of corrosion and then we recommend water analysis.

But please take in consideration that pitting corrosion can also be caused by physiological saline solution which is used in the OP-theatre, but in most cases it is recognizable after reprocessing, because blood and other OP residues are removed in washer disinfector. Pitting holes with typical little rust circles around the pitting hole are not removable. The rust residues can be removed by dipping bath in phosphoric acid detergents which are specially designed for basic cleaning of stainless steel surgical instruments.

Kindest regards

Dr. Jürgen Staffeldt
Chemische Fabrik DR. WEIGERT GmbH & Co. KG
Anwendungstechnik neodisher
Mühlenhagen 85
D-20539 Hamburg
Tel. (49) 40 / 789 60 - 165
Fax (49) 40 / 789 60 - 123