Originally published in November 1997 issue Vol. 6, No. 11.
Tube Scoop:
Insider's Guide to Cleaning Lap Instruments
-- by Rick Schultz
Every day, you do your very best to clean those
hard-to-reach places in laparoscopic instruments. You soak and rinse and put little
brushes through tiny lumens and you hope that you're successfully sweeping away debris.
Then you go through the process again-- and you still may end up with a dirty
instrument. There are just too many places where debris can hide that you and your
brushes can't reach.
Help is on the way in the form of instruments that can be
cleaned more easily. But these advances are slow in coming; elbow grease, brushes,
and Medisafe irrigation units are still your weapons of choice.
Another weapon is knowledge. Attendees at the annual
meeting of the American Society for Healthcare Central Service Professionals learned the
tricks of decontamination, quality assurance, and testing from Rick Schultz, president of
Spectrum Surgical Instruments.
The following pages highlight some of the advice Spectrum
has to offer about the cleaning, decontamination, and repair of those complex laparoscopic
instruments.
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