Validierung der manuellen Reinigung von semikritischen Ultraschallsonden.

A validated manual cleaning process is a prerequisite for effective manual chemical disinfection. Following their use, semi-critical ultrasound probes (transducers) have high loads of transmission gel contamination. Objective proof of adequate gel removal during cleaning can be provided following sample collection in a foil tube by eluting with defined volumes of ultrapure water and total organic carbon (TOC) analysis. This can also be done using a correlated ready-to-use test kit and photometric quantitative detection of carbomers. The cleaning optimization achieved with these methods, comprising the steps of wet wiping twice, swabbing the grooves with cotton tips and cleaning through elution in the foil tube, always yielded residual gel amounts of < 500 µg carbon. Based on the around 260 cm² surface area coated with gel, this was well below the warning threshold specified in DIN EN ISO 15883-5 (2020) of ≥ 6 µg carbon/ cm². Accordingly, this manual cleaning method produces a valid result in only one to two minutes, thus paving the way for effective disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]