Does the water in the cleaning bowl, rinse bowl and the ultrasonic bath need to be below 45 degrees C?

Q.Does the water in the cleaning bowl, rinse bowl and the ultrasonic bath need to be below 45 degrees centigrade?

If so, why?

Do you keep a thermometer to ensure that the water temperatures are below 45 degrees in your decontamination room?

A.Yes we use a thermometer to make sure the water is less than 45 degrees, this is to stop protein from coagulating onto mental instruments as they will not sterilise in the autoclave effectively.

A.Yes According to htm 01-05 you are supposed to have either 45 degrees or lower than that.  A higher temperature will coagulate protein and inhibit its removal.

A.Yes it does.

If you look at the HTM01-05 document it mentions it. When it talks about manual cleaning the reason is that research has shown prions are potentially more likely to stick to the surface of an instrument if they are washed / rinsed in temperatures of 45 degrees or above.  Once the prions are “baked on” it is almost impossible to get them off.

It is not acceptable to just wash/rinse in cold water as you have no proof that you are within the temperature parameters.  Thermometers are cheap and readily available on-line.

November 2015