Washing, Decontamination and Sterilisation of Surgical Instruments

All Health and Care surgical instruments have been inspected for functionality before shipment to theatres. All instrumentation is inspected prior to shipping. Should you experience any problems when using a surgical instrument, please inform our Customer Care Team immediately.

Health and Care’s surgical instruments must be sterilised prior to use using high temperature steam. The instrument must be sterilised using validated equipment and processed in accordance with Health Technical Memorandum 2010 – Sterilisation. Health and Care has no control over equipment and practice in your hospital. The sterility of any instrument is the responsibility of the customer.

To sterilise wrap instrument kit trays and use a steam autoclave. The standard parameters of 134-137 degrees centigrade for 3 – 3.5 minutes are appropriate.

Note: individual autoclaves (even those of the same model) may vary in performance, characteristics and must be validated. Accordingly these aforementioned parameters were achieved during the validation of multi-layer instrument trays. The autoclave used was a vacuum assisted air removal phase prior to steam admission for sterilisation.

For further information relating to the use of these instruments, please contact Health and Care’s Customer Care Team.

For further information regarding cleaning and sterilising, please consult AAMI Technical Information Report (TRI) 12-1994 : Sterilisation, Disinfection and Cleaning of Medical Equipment, Guidance on Decontamination from the Microbiology Advisory Committee to Department of Health Devices Directorate.

After Use – Washing & Decontamination of Surgical Instruments

The decontamination process is dependent upon effective cleaning and washing of instruments. Severe soiling should be removed under running water in a sink draining continuously, using brushes and rigid nylon bristles. Attention should be paid to any cannulated instruments and any screw holes where debris may enter. Staff carrying out the decontamination and washing process should operate according to local policy and procedures.

For automated washing machines a typical cycle should include the following:

1. Cool/warm detergent below coagulation temperature (below 60 degree C)
2. Rinse to remove detergent.
3. Hot wash disinfection (above 71 degrees C for 3 minutes in all part of load).
4. Final rinse in purified water.
5. Heat around drying cycle.
6. The majority of surgical instruments are one-piece items, however some are constructed from several components. These must be disassembled into their constituent parts in order to be washed, cleaned and decontaminated effectively.

Before returning any instrument to Health and Care, please ensure that washing and sterilising has been carried out in accordance with HTM 2010 and HTM 2030. All equipment used must have a validated cycle. The reference numbers should be entered onto the decontamination certificates.