Caneta eletrocirúrgica monopolar de uso único: processo de limpeza e comportamento funcional elétrico no reprocessamento

Abstract

Products or medical single-use articles are used in health care for a long time and accompanied the technological advancement of health. They are made of polymeric materials and are mostly thermosensitive. The electrosurgical monopolar single-use scalpel - SUESE - is among the frequently recycled products and is an enhancement of electrosurgical generators that enables the use of electrosurgery, an essential technique in many procedures. The singleuse products should be discharged after one use; however, they are reprocessed for reuse mainly on the grounds of cost reduction in Health Care Institutions - EAS. In recent years the incidence of mycobacteria resistant infections has increased due to a lack of safety criteria as well as the risk that these materials can bring to health. Some research can be found addressing this problem. The need for regulation of the article in question and the absence of clear regulations focused on this article sparked interest in the topic. The aim of this study was to investigate the practice of reprocessing this article in the refered health institution under the aspect of cleaning and electrical functionality. The cleaning assessment was made by 3M Clean Trace ATP SurfaceTM chemical method and the samples were collected before cleaning, after manual cleaning and after automatized and manual cleaning. The functional analysis was made by electrical impedance test before first use, after the fifth use and after the tenth use. The results indicated more effective cleaning while two methods were employed: automated and manual. The variation values after electrical tests revealed that less than half (40 %) remained in good conditions until the fifth use which suggests that it is unsafe to reuse it up to the fifth time. The possibility of a second, third or fourth use could only be confirmed after testing the article more times.