Pyrogen reactions during cardiac catheterization are an alarming complication that frightens patients and baffles many physicans. This report describes a simple, reproducible, precise technique for the measurement of endotoxin-like activity on the inner and outer surfaces of catheters intended for intravascular insertion. This technique is useful in documenting the cause of patient reactions. Q...

This exploratory case study was performed aiming at implementing the Activity-based Costing (ABC) method in a Sterile Processing Department (SPD) of a major teaching hospital. Data collection was performed throughout 2006. Documentary research techniques and non participant closed observation were used. The ABC implementation allowed for learning the activity-based costing of both the chemical ...

It is commonly accepted that terminally sterilized healthcare products are rarely the source of a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). The vast majority of HAIs arise from human-borne contamination from the workforce, the clinical environment, less-than-aseptic handling techniques, and the patients themselves. Nonetheless, the requirement for a maximal sterility assurance level (SAL) of a termina...

Prions are comprised principally of aggregates of a misfolded host protein and cause fatal transmissible neurodegenerative disorders of mammals, such as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. Prions pose significant public health concerns through contamination of blood products and surgical instruments, and can resist conventional hospital st...

In this paper, we deal with the problem of minimizing the sum of completion times for washing operations in hospital sterilization services. After use in operating rooms, reusable medical devices (RMD) are sent to the sterilization service which is composed of various processes. In the washing step, different sets of RMD, used for different operations, may be washed together without exceeding w...

Women who undergo sterilization may later regret this decision. This systematic review examines whether age at sterilization is associated with poststerilization regret. Using MEDLINE and EMBASE, we identified 19 articles that examined associations between women's age at sterilization and later regret, requests for sterilization reversal and undergoing sterilization reversal or requesting in vi...

Objective To study the composition of intracavitary deposits on Essure® hysteroscopic sterilization devices. Design Case report. Setting Reproductive Medicine and Gynecology department of a University Hospital. Patients A 39 years old patient presenting with a request for surgical removal of Essure® sterilization devices. Diagnostic hysteroscopy showed a crystal like white deposit attache...

  Introduction: As a key member of the healthcare workforce, nurses play an important role in patient care. N ursing care performance, especially sterilization, is of significant importance in provision of health and prevention of complications such as hospital infections. This study aimed to investigate nurses’ performance concerning sterilization while performing nursing techniques in ICU war...

The development of bio-resorbable implant materials is rapidly going on. Sterilization of those materials is inevitable to assure the hygienic requirements for critical medical devices according to the medical device directive (MDD, 93/42/EG). Biopolymer-containing biomaterials are often highly sensitive towards classical sterilization procedures like steam, ethylene oxide treatment or gamma ir...