Rewriting the Rules of Cataract Reprocessing
How the leading ophthalmologists say you should clean and sterilize.
I
ntraocular instruments get a lot more use than endoscopes or
laparoscopes, but they obviously don't get as heavily soiled with
blood or bodily fluids because they're confined to the anterior
segment of the eye. Yet some facilities are using outdated, impractical
and even dangerous cleaning and sterilizing guidelines that were writ-
ten for general surgical instruments, not for cataract instruments.
Fortunately, a group of the world's leading cataract surgeons last
month updated the specialty-specific reprocessing guidelines
(osmag.net/vSEjJ8) that address the unique challenges of cleaning
and sterilizing ophthalmic instruments.
Some of the advice runs counter to what instrument IFUs specify
2 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 1 8
Infection Prevention
JoEllen McBride, PhD | Associate Editor
• WET OR DRY If you're transporting sterilized instruments immediately to the OR, do they really need to be dry?
