Overkill Vacuum Cycles

[chipmoore]

Sterilizers cleared for use in healthcare facilities were desgined using the "over kill" method. Try this experiment in an otherwise empty chamber. Place the BI on the load car in the location recommended by the BI Mfg. Change the exposure time to 1 minute for the vacuum cycle at the temperature typically used and recommended by the sterilizer Mfg. The results should be no growth. Please return the exposure time back to your original settings.
Chip Moore
Getinge
Rochester, NY

[mwking]

It well understood that sterilization is more of a statistical 'problem' than a measurable one.

As long as you move the biological count from 1X10 to the sixth to 1X10 to the first you have sterilized a sample of one million organisms. In otherwords, if one bacteria survives the sample can still be called 'sterile'.
Of course, there is no way to count bacteria on a huck towel before or after it has been run. So, we use statistics developed to predict an outcome not to measure an outcome.