Then there were reports of damage to OR table hand controls, ear
tympanic thermometers and the plastic on the lower door hinge of infu-
sion pumps — all from the use of incompatible liquid cleaners. The use
of improper cleaners can also damage seals, degrade lubricants and
cause fluid intrusion.
What's so vexing is that there's often no visible indication of impend-
ing failure. Plus, you might not know that a cleaner is incompatible
with the device you're using it on until the agent has degraded the
integrity of plastics. By then, the damage is done. Even when manu-
facturers publish equipment-specific cleaning instructions, this infor-
mation isn't always readily available to clinical staff. Worse still,
there's no single cleaner or cleaning process that will work with all
devices. How burdensome would it be if you had to stock and use
multiple cleaning products and familiarize your staff with device-spe-
cific cleaning methods?
Signs of distress
Chances are, environmental stress cracking is happening in your ORs.
There are different kinds of plastics used to make different kinds of
medical devices, and different cleaners are compatible with different
kinds of plastics, so any medical device that has a plastic component —
an infusion pump, a positioning aid, a vital-signs monitor, to name just a
few — is susceptible. The breakdown begins slowly, almost impercep-
tibly. Early warning signs include cracking and crazing, the latter of
which appears as a crackling effect on the surface of some materials,
caused by a network of fine cracks.
Given the sheer number of available cleaning agents — 286 manufactur-
ers make sprays and wipes for healthcare usage! — we routinely hear
that the issue can be a real hurdle to overcome. Device manufacturers
Infection Prevention
IP
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