CUTTING COSTS 2

STERILIZING AND DISINFECTING INSTRUMENTS:
Sterilization is the destruction of all living organisms.
- An item may only be STERIE or NON-STERILE.
- It cannot be NEARLY sterile.
- Disinfection, on the other hand is the REDUCTION of NUMBER of
pathogenic micro-organisms without achieving sterility.
Not all bacterial spores are destroyed in disinfection.

AUTOCLAVES:
This is the most efficient method of sterilizing instruments,
packs and dressings.
This method is suitable for most materials.
An autoclave is basically a pressure cooker a domestic pressure
cooker can be used to sterilize instruments.
The small autoclaves produced for the doctor's surgery have a choice of temperatures, pressures and sterilizing times:
The highest temperature that can be reached by boiling water
at sea level in an open vessel is 100 degree C.
With increased pressure, the water can be raised to much higher temperatures before it boils,e.g.,at a pressure of 0.35kg per cm2 (5p.s.i.) the temperature reaches 105.5 degree C:
At 0.7 kg per cm2(10 p.s.i.). 115 degree C;
At 1.05 kg per cm2 (15 p.s.i.) the temperature will reach 121 degree C, etc.
In a sterilizer chamber(autoclave)which has been exhausted of air,
the steam entering effectively fills, the free spaces surrounding
the load.
As steam contacts, the cool outer layers of the cloth cover, a
film of steam condenses, leaving a minute quantity of moisture in
the fibres of the material.
Air contained in the spaces between the fibers of the material, being heavier than steam, is displaced in a downward direction, and the latent heat given off during the process of condensation is absorbed by that layer of the cloth covering and is sterilized.
The next film of steam immediately fills the space created when
the first film condensed into water, and it does not condense on
the outer layer of the fabrics but penetrates into the second
layer, condenses and heats it.
This process continues until the whole load is heated to its inner depth and no further condensation occurs, the temperature in the core of the pack is that of the surrounding steam.
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