Presence of protein deposits on cleaned' re-usable anaesthetic equipment

• Published in: Anaesthesia Vol. 56; no. 11; pp. 1069 - 1072
• Main Authors: MILLER, D. M, YOUKHANA, I, KARUNARATNE, W. U, PEARCE, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell 01.11.2001
• Subjects: Anesthesia; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Anesthesia: equipment, devices; Anesthesiology - instrumentation; Biological and medical sciences; Cross Infection - transmission; Equipment Contamination; Equipment Reuse; Erythrosine; Fluorescent Dyes; Humans; Laryngeal Masks; Laryngoscopes; Medical sciences; Prion Diseases - transmission; Proteins - analysis; Sterilization - standards; Human; Prion disease; Decontamination; Reuse; Transmission; Mask; Anesthesia; Larynx; Laryngoscope; Blade; Technical equipment; Protein
• ISSN: 0003-2409; 1365-2044
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2044.2001.02277.x

Twenty previously used and supposedly clean, sterilised laryngeal mask airways, five bougies and five Magill forceps from the operating theatre, and 61 laryngoscope blades from different sites within a single hospital were randomly collected and stained with erythrosin B dye, which stains proteins if present on surfaces. All 20 laryngeal mask airways had been used before and were stained: four (20%) showed heavy staining, five (25%) moderate staining and 11 (55%) mild staining. Two unused laryngeal mask airways used as controls were without staining. Thirty-four of 44 (77%) laryngoscope blades taken from the operating theatres, six of seven (86%) from the overnight intensive recovery room and all 10 (100%) from the wards were stained. None of the other items was totally clean. These findings suggest that current cleaning methods do not remove all proteinaceous material.