Vet Tech Tips

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Have You Outgrown Your Sterilization Solution?

Today’s Tech Tip is about sterilization solutions for high volume general practices, multi-specialty practices that need a faster turnaround time than their Anprolene, which is a 12-hour cycle.

Maria again with me today. What can you tell me about these practices that need that faster turnaround time?

Well, those are great questions and this is the EOGas 4. It’s the most popular upgrade system for our veterinary practices. They are looking for something that has a faster turnaround time. So, they can sterilize the same piece of equipment multiple times a day with the 3-hour cycle.

So, this is just one single bag, same as the Anprolene. It does look bigger. Correct. It is a bigger bag across the bottom of the liner bag. And, it’s warm in here.

Exactly. It’s also a heated cycle. So, any of you vet techs out there that have issues with Dosimeters. This bad-boy isn’t going to show those same types of problems, because it is a heated chamber.

And, the nice thing about it is it’s a plug-and-play. It uses the same exhaust port as the Anprolene system.

OK. So they could just swap it out, not have to move it or do any other installation.

Exactly.

What about this one (EOGas 310)? What would be an example of why I would use this? There’s multiple bags here.

This is our multi-load sterilizer and it’s great because you can add and remove sterilization cycles throughout the day. You can put two in the morning, two in the afternoon, two before you leave for the day. And, you had mentioned multi-specialty clinics.

Yeah. I could see this being used for internal medicine, surgery, maybe neurology or really any emergency department that might have things going in and out. So you’re saying you can open this door throughout the cycle. These are all running separately?

Correct. They’re each individual loads and the micro-processor actually takes the responsibility out of the technician’s hands. It will track all of the loads that are going on throughout the day.

OK, so this prints a label, I see the label printer and that would go on each pack so you know the start time, maybe the department it belongs to and when it needs to come out.

Correct. Exactly.

Great. Thank you. That’s it for today’s Tech Tip. Contact your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
How Andersen’s Flexible Chamber Sterilizers Work with EO

Today’s Tech Tip is about how the Andersen sterilizers work.

In one of our videos we talked about what EO (ethylene oxide) gas is. I have Maria with me again, and now I want to know how this works with sterilization.

That’s a great topic. What I like to talk about quite often. With our systems, we are the only sterilization system on the market using EO gas in what we call, a flexible chamber. It’s a sterilization liner bag, with the ampoule we discussed in one of our previous videos and all of your product goes into the sterilization liner bag with your gas ampoule. Once it is all packed and ready to go, we want to make sure that it has the best path and the highest concentration at the very beginning off the cycle.

As you can see we have one of the liner bags already purged down. We’ve removed all of the extra space that we don’t need in there. All of the dead space.

Once the ampoule is actually activated, it diffuses through this gas release bag. Takes about 11 minutes. I think you did a video on what to do if you drop one of these little ampoules.

Yes, you’ll see the outer sterilization liner bag expand. So you’re saying after this purge you break the ampoule, then the liner bag will expand because of the gas.

Correct, exactly. It’s currently in a liquid form. Once that ampoule is broken it turns into a gas immediately. It will diffuse, or make its way through the gas release bag, work its way around your product into the center and once it has gotten to the center then it slowly diffuses through the liner bag here into your cabinet.

And then outside.

That’s the way this system works, our Anprolene systems. We do have heated chambers. That will probably be another video that Jacklyn does, that we can talk about a little later. But, the Anprolene system is one of the most popular with the veterinary market.

That’s it for today’s Tech Tips. Thanks Maria!

You’re welcome.

Contact your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Debunking Myths about Ethylene Oxide Toxicity

Today’s Tech Tip is about toxicity.

I have Maria with Andersen Sterilizers with me to kinda help me debunk some of those myths about EO gas.

When I work in practices that have these sterilizers, there’s a lot of fear around the chemical itself or just operating the sterilizer in general. What kind of things can you tell me about EO gas that might compare to other things used in practices?

Those are great questions. There are really two things I’d like to relay to everyone. All chemicals used in a veterinary practice for sterilization have a level of toxicity. Ethylene oxide actually compares very closely with these other methods. They are similar as far as exposure levels that are set in place by OSHA, or these other chemicals are worse.

I’m gonna pick your brain as the expert – What are some of the name brand chemicals that you see in the veterinary practices?

For instrument use, I would say probably Chlorhexidine, Nolvasan, those would be in cold soaking methods. As well as Cidex I’ve used with endoscopes and I know that’s a very high toxicity type of chemical where I had to wear a lot of PPE for it. And cage cleaners and things like that would be used in the practice.

Those are all great references and one thing I recommend to everyone who is using these types of chemicals is not to take my word for it. All of these chemicals should have a safety data sheet. Do your research. If you want to know what the exposure levels are, or the toxicity levels are, do the research. Call your distributor rep, ask for an SDS (Safety Data Sheet). They should be able to give those to you without any hesitation. One other point that I love to make is that ethylene oxide has a very long history. We also know how to monitor for any type of exposure to ethylene oxide. So, I have another question for you, Jacklyn. Have you ever monitored for exposure while using some of these other chemicals?

No. No. I haven’t had any kind of monitoring for any kind of sterile processing. That’s, like I said, another good thing about ethylene oxide, is the history. We have the monitoring badges. We have the personal badge that can be worn on the lapel. Jacklyn did a great video on this one. The AN94. So, we’ve got your short-term exposure limit, or your 15-minute. We also have an 8-hour badge that can be hooked to a space near your work zone. Next time you have a chemical sterilant, cold soak, Cidex, bleach – think about if there’s any monitoring for exposure when you’re using those. I think you’d be surprised at what the answer is.

I think also a good point is, the difference between disinfection and sterilization, that EO gas is achieving a level of sterilization outside of Cidex or Chlorhex which is only disinfection.

That’s it for today’s Tech Tips. Thanks Maria! You’re welcome! Contact your Rep if you have any questions.

EO Safety Data Sheet.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
What is Ethylene Oxide?

For today’s Tech Tip, I have Maria back with me, with Andersen Sterilizers. And, the question is: What is ethylene oxide, which we also call EO gas? So what is this chemical?

Great question and I love talking about ethylene oxide. It is a chemical sterilant that is in a liquid form until 51 degrees when it boils and turns into a gaseous form. That’s how it’s used for sterilization, in the gaseous state.

I like to talk about the fact we only use 17.6 grams, or 20.6ml of ethylene oxide per cycle.

Which is 90 percent less than some of your competitors, right?

Correct, exactly. I’ve got some examples of items that are more than 17.6 grams, because a lot of people are like “How much is 17.6?” 20.6ml’s. 20.6ml or 2 sponges, some other items, rubber bands. So you can see exactly the small amount of ethylene oxide that is being used in your sterilization cycle. We have really perfected how to use this type of chemical sterilant.

If you Google “ethylene oxide” a lot of the times you will see the large industrial pallet-sized chambers where you can drive a truck into these systems or put really significant amounts of product.

Those big tank systems, right?

Exactly. You can’t drive a truck into this. I’m sorry. We use a micro-dose amount of ethylene oxide.

And, the way ethylene oxide actually sterilizes is it renders bacteria spores unable to consume any nutrients or reproduce. So, depending on the temperature of the sterilizer that you’re using it can be anywhere from 24 hours to 3 hours.

And, you won’t ever see this [the glass ampoule], because the gas is protected by the packaging material. So, depending on the system that you have it might come in a cartridge or it might come in a bag form so you won’t ever be exposed to the glass ampoule itself.

Correct, exactly.

Thank you. That’s it for today’s Tech Tip. Contact your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
EO Area Monitoring

Today’s Tech Tip is about the AN94 badges, also known as the Vapor-Trak.

There are two of them in the package that are identical. One will be used for a 15-minute exposure time, which is worn on you as you’re unloading the sterilizer and the other one is 8-hour, which is to be left in the room.

Now, these are recommended to be used after your installation and then again yearly for quality control.

So, the purpose of these badges are to ensure that your sterilizer is ventilating appropriately. For the 15-minute badge, I would wear this on my lapel. I would take my time unloading the sterilizer after the cycle is complete. Maybe take my time sorting out the packs that were in there.

For the 8-hour, you can hang it near the workspace within your sterilizer area but beware of cross contamination. Any chemicals like bleach, Parvosol, KennelSol, Rescue – all those things can contribute to cross contamination. So, make sure there’s no other chemicals in use during that time.

These badges are then sent out in a pre-postage paid package [to a third party lab]. You’ll get your results in two days.

That’s it for today’s Tech Tip, call your Rep if you have any questions.

NOTE: You will receive immediate email notification if the lab detects elevated results. 

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Batteries & Electronics

Today’s Tech Tip is about sterilizing electronics and batteries in your EO sterilizer.

All of these things on the table are compatible with EO gas. The electronics are great for this because there is no damage to the instrument while it goes through the cycle.

Batteries can be sterilized. We get a lot of questions about that. Battery packs are often the external part of a drill or saw that comes into a sterile field. As long as this is separated from the instrument itself it can be sterilized. So I would detach it, place it into a pouch and seal that. It can go in with the rest of your items in the sterilization cycle, as long as it’s separated. There’s a color change indicator on the back of this pouch here.

This battery is external being a part of your sterile field, there are also internal batteries that are inside the instruments that can be sterilized as well. The biggest thing, if there are multiple batteries in an instrument, you want to make sure they are in a single pouch per battery.

For any of these instruments and items, they are all going into your sterile field, so really this should be standard sterile processing. Just know how diverse the EO gas sterilizer is – that you are able to implement it for all of these instruments.

That’s it for today’s Tech Tip, call your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
12- and 24-Hour Cycles

Today’s Tech Tip is about 12- and 24-hour cycles and helping differentiate between them.

Today I have my sidekick, Maria Zink, with me – with Andersen Sterilizers. We will talk about 12- and 24-hour cycles, materials, consumables.

For the 12-hour cycle, reference back to one of the last videos we did – metals, small plastics, smaller loads – those are all appropriate for a 12-hour cycle. Now Maria can talk more about the materials in a 24-hour cycle and if there are any changes in your consumables.  

Thanks, Jacklyn. I love the video Jacklyn did previously about separating the items you are going to sterilize, much like you would separate your laundry.

The 24-hour cycle is your power cycle. This is specifically designed for items that would be considered gas-absorbent. A lot of people ask us, what exactly is gas-absorbent? What does that mean?

Well, anything that retains water is going to also retain a lot of gas. So, those are the items we would consider to be gas-absorbent. As well as any tubing that is over 3’ in length. When you have these items, you would run them on a 24-hour cycle using one gas ampoule.

A lot of people forget to maintain the right room temperature – which is 68°F – and the right humidity – which is 35% – or greater. You want to set yourself up for success by ensuring all these parameters are in place before starting a 24-hour cycle.

Maria, in regards to the 24-hour cycle, in what instance would you use a second ampoule – or would you ever need that?

That’s a great question and we get it quite often. Our 24-hour cycle is designed so one ampoule is sufficient – as long as you are running a cycle with the appropriate temperature (which is 68°F or greater), you make sure you have your humidity level at 35% or above and the true tell-tale is the dosimeter (as long as your dosimeter reaches or surpasses the triangular mark, you know all your parameters for sterilization were met).

I know that doesn’t really answer the question, “Do you ever need two ampoules?” If you have a load full of really gas-absorbent materials where the bag is very full, in circumstances like that, yes, a second ampoule would be appropriate.

So, a lot of suction tubing, a lot of cloth draping materials, bandage materials and it’s a full bag – then you would potentially need a second ampoule.

Exactly.

Thanks, Maria. Glad to have you with me today. That’s it for today’s Tech Tip, call your Rep if you have any questions.

Products discussed in this video:
AN87 Anprolene Dosimeter
(Not pictured: AN1087 EOGas 4 Dosimeter)

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Replacing Your Purge Probe

Today’s Tech Tip is regarding your purge probe.

Two reasons it may need to be replaced:

• Because its 5-year useful life. We do recommend it is replaced every 5 years. And
• It might be broken. The black plastic piece between the probe and the tubing is a common place that it breaks. I often see technicians holding the probe by this plastic piece. It can break if there is a heavy load attached, you really need to hold it by the probe itself.

Disconnecting the old probe is pretty easy. You can use one hand to push up on the ring and the other to pull the hose down.

The connection between the probe and the tubing is a quick connect as well. This one is just a valve. Click to connect. Pull off.

When you’re replacing the probe, it ships connected to the tubing already. You push the end of the tubing firmly into the plastic ring inside the roof of the sterilizer – it’s easily attached so it’s secure.

That’s it for today. Call your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Emissions & Abators

For today’s Tech Tip, I’m bringing in the expert, Maria. We’ll talk about emissions of EO gas. As you know, there’s only a tiny amount of gas that’s used per cycle. However, there might be some questions about emissions in your area. So, Maria can tell you about that.

Thanks, Jacklyn. This is something that Andersen Sterilizers has tackled before. We have always had the method to abate, or scrub, emissions before exhausting to the outside. Right here we have one of our Anprolene systems and our abator. This is the back view so Jacklyn can show you how easy it is to connect the Anprolene AN74j to our abator. There’s a quick connect portion here that you plug in to connect to the abator. It is a male and female part. What happens is, the ethylene oxide is filtered down to your abator where it is converted into biodegradable organic compounds.

So, Maria, these are sold by Andersen Sterilizers and my understanding is that they are readily available? Absolutely. Okay, so call your sales rep need more information about emissions or implementing this system to your existing sterilizer.

End tag: So, Jacklyn, after that Tech Tip, do you remember what the abator breaks ethylene oxide down to? Biodegradable organic compounds! [high five]

Products discussed in this video:
AN5100 Emissions Abator

There is also an abator available for the EOGas 3 series: AN5200 EO Abator.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Why use EO for Metal Instruments?

Today’s Tech Tips is regarding why we would use EO gas for metal instruments.

Something like orthopedic packs that have sharps like saws, pins, sharp scissors. That would be something to preserve your instruments utilizing EO gas.

Typically, we run metals through the autoclave – which isn’t wrong. But it does create a lot of wear and tear on the sharpness, on the box locks – through that heat and steam.

The EO gas sterilizer is complimentary to your autoclave – being non-corrosive, non-oxidative to the instruments, which retains their sharpness. You don’t have to send your instruments out for repair or replacement as often if you use the gas sterilizer for your metal instruments.

That’s it for today. Contact your Rep if you have any questions.

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Sterilization Wrapping Materials & Shelf Life

Today’s Tech Tip is about wrapping materials for your instruments as well as shelf life.

Most common would be something like CSR wrap. This comes on the big blue rolls that you have in the hospital, generally for your surgery packs. Then also drape material, so the cloth. These two you’re generally double wrapping, so consider that. Also consider your cycle time with the materials that you’re wrapping and how you’re sorting those things.

So with these, you wrap them like a package. There’s not an adhesive seal so these would have a 30-day shelf life. Also consider the Exposure Indicators for the inside of these packs that a lot of people like to utilize. If your doctor likes to see some kind of Indicator on the inside of their packs to give them that assurance that this pack has been sterilized.

Other sterile wrapping materials would include an adhesive self-seal pouch. And then the heat-sealed pouches. These are custom to the size and come in several different sizes and then you heat seal these pouches. These both greatly extend shelf life.

Certainly, follow your hospital protocols on how often you’re rotating those out. Again, you can use the Indicators on the inside of these pouches. And then consider the self-seal pouches, they have color change indicators on the outside of the packs relative to EO gas versus steam sterilization.

That’s it for today. Thank you!

Product discussed in this video:
AN85 Exposure Indicator
(wrapping materials available from many sources)

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
What if I drop an EO ampoule?

Today’s Tech Tip is about what to do if you accidentally drop an ampoule. So now the ampoule is broken. Most people’s response is to run. But that’s not the right answer.

You have about seven minutes before the gas starts permeating through the material of the liner bag.

No one is being exposed thus far. The right thing to do is to place it inside of the sterilizer and start a cycle.

As long as the sterilizer is running, it is ventilating. So everything is being ventilated out of the room, no one has been exposed, you got it from the area where it broke to the sterilizer in a timely matter – so there’s nothing else you need to do.

That’s it for today, thanks!

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Humidity, it Matters!

The required humidity is 35% for successful ethylene oxide sterilization. When we get questions about why that’s so important, think about the bacteria and it being desiccated – or dried out. These sponges are good examples. So this sponge is dried out, it is very firm, it has a crunchy outer shell. Versus a hydrated sponge is softer so that makes it easier for the ethylene oxide to come through.

In certain areas of the country, there is higher levels of humidity. Also consider if you’re washing your instruments, that provides humidity as well. Some instruments cannot be washed. So in that case, we would use a Humidichip and also in those areas of the country – like in the Midwest where it’s 10%-15% humidity all the time – then you would use several Humidichips.

So these come in their own pouches. These are hydrated cellulose strips. They just come out of the pouch and go into the Humiditube. These tubes go into the bag with all of your instruments to provide humidity throughout the rest of the cycle – to ensure the ethylene oxide is working through all of your instruments.

That’s it for today. Make sure to contact your Rep if you have any questions or if you’ve any issues with humidity in your sterilizer.

Products discussed in this video:
AN1071 Humidichip RH Stabilizer
AN1072 Humiditube

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
EO Indicators & Integrators

Today’s Tech Tip is about the different ethylene oxide (EO) gas indicators and integrators, how we use them and why we need them.

The first one is a chemical indicator. So this is just an exposure strip. It shows a strong color change when exposed to EO. There’s the stickers that we like to use on the outside of the packs.

And then there’s also the tape that’s great for clients that have EOGas 4, with heated cycles.

These indicators do not tell you that the pack is sterile, it only tells you that it has gone through a cycle and it has been exposed to gas.

For our integrator, more along the lines of sterile processing, will tell you that time, temperature and gas concentration have been met to achieve sterility. The Dosimeter goes in the entire load with all of your packs, ideally somewhere challenging for the gas to reach. And then the color change will reach the arrow to tell you the cycle was successful.

The last one is a biological indicator. This one has a bacteria strip with Bacillus atrophaeus, which is the most difficult spore for EO gas to kill. Some clinics may use this once a week, maybe once a month, as a kind of quality control to ensure that these cycles are successful. Then this gets incubated for 48 hours to look for color change, which ideally there is not. That’s it for today.

Products discussed in this video:
AN85 Exposure Indicator
AN2250 Indicator Tape
AN87 Anprolene Dosimeter 
(Not pictured: AN1087 EOGas 4 Dosimeter)
AN2203 Biological Indicator

Andersen Sterilizers Vet Tech Tips with Jacklyn Phillips, RVT
Absorbent Vs. Non-Absorbent Materials
Today’s Tech Tip is regarding absorbent versus non-absorbent materials in your sterilization load. Differentiating between a 12-hour cycle and a 24-hour cycle. Creating some efficiency about how you run these cycles. Working smarter, not harder with this.

When we think about absorbent materials, I think about bandage material, vet wrap is pretty big on the absorbent side. Cloth, a lot of towels, maybe you sterilize your scrubs. Also consider your wrapping materials, if you’re wrapping with double cloth, that would be more absorbent.

Metals are non-absorbent. So if you would sort these out, like you would your laundry, into electronics/metals and maybe you run those Monday through Friday with your 12-hour cycle – then they’re good to go because you’re using them more frequently.

Versus, can you stockpile the bandage material, the cloth items into a weekend cycle (24-hour cycle and 24-hour aeration) where you start it on a Friday night, it runs all through the weekend and that way it’s completely aerated by Monday morning when you come in.

That’s it for today. Call your Rep if you have any questions about how to sort these items.