The presence of fecal test soil protects bacteria during cleaning/disinfection.

Reusable medical devices (RMDs) must be reprocessed between uses to render them safe for each use and each patient. Cleaning used devices removes organic and inorganic soil making them either safe for reuse or ready for disinfection/sterilization depending on the device. Although cleaning is an important step in a RMD's life cycle, it is not always a priority during device design.

Optimized Protocol for Testing Multipurpose Contact Lens Solution Efficacy Against Acanthamoeba.

Objectives: To evaluate the interlaboratory and intralaboratory reproducibility of a proposed protocol for multipurpose contact lens solution (MPS) disinfection efficacy against Acanthamoeba.

Methods: Acanthamoeba castellanii and Acanthamoeba polyphaga and four MPS with different biocidal agents were used to evaluate the protocol in two different laboratories. In addition to the negative control, a positive control and neutralization control were used.

Designing for cleanability: The effects of material, surface roughness, and the presence of blood test soil and bacteria on devices.

Cleaning reusable medical devices removes organic and inorganic soil, which allows for effective disinfection and sterilization. However, it is not always clear what variables to consider when validating cleaning. This study compared the ability of 3 different cleaning agents (ie, water, alcohol, and bleach) to remove bacteria (ie, vegetative and spores) and artificial blood test soil from 2 common device materials: polypropylene and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.

Rapid detection of bacterial endotoxins in ophthalmic viscosurgical device materials by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry.

Bacterial endotoxins are lipopolysaccharides bound to the bacterial cell wall and released when bacteria rupture or disintegrate. Possible contamination of endotoxin in ophthalmic devices can cause a painful eye inflammation or result in toxic anterior segment syndrome after cataract surgery. Measurement of bacterial endotoxin in medical device materials is difficult since endotoxin binds with polymer matrix and some of the materials are very viscous and non-water soluble, where traditional enzyme-based Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay cannot be applied.

Product Sterility Testing . . . To Test or Not to Test? That Is the Question.

The applications for sterility testing in the validation and routine control of sterilization of medical devices have changed dramatically over the years. As the definition of sterility assurance has evolved, so has the state of the science associated with product sterility testing. Historically, product sterility testing has been applied to such things as sterilization validation, sterilization lot release, packaging qualification, aseptic processing qualification, and determination of shelf life for the packaged medical device.