Autoclaves with a phase of fractionated pre-vacuum and vacuum drying (class B) allow you to sterilize any medical instruments, linen and dressings in any type of packaging.
The use of B-class autoclaves has become especially important for sterilization of surgical instruments, usually with narrow lumens, and dental handpieces with a complex structure of internal channels.
The pre-vacuum phase (the phase preceding the sterilization phase) or the vacuum cycle allows you to remove contaminated air not only from the sterilizer chamber, but also from all cavities of the sterilized instrument, ensuring the subsequent flow of hot steam into them. Microorganisms are destroyed only when they come into contact with hot steam, and if contaminated air remains in the gaps of instruments or tips, sterility will not be ensured.
If you plan to sterilize wrapped or porous plugs, it is especially important to have a vacuum drying phase, which allows you to dry the plugs after the sterilization phase in order to avoid re-infection.
Instruments or materials sterilized in self-sealing pouches, after vacuum drying in an autoclave, can remain sterile for up to one year. Depending on your need for the number of objects to be sterilized, it is important to choose an autoclave with an appropriate chamber size. The most common chamber sizes range from 16 to 22 liters. The more pallets are included in the chamber of your chosen autoclave, the fewer cycles will be required to sterilize the entire volume of materials, which in turn will save you time.
The control panel of the autoclave should provide easy reading of information, the cycle symbols on the control panel should be easily understandable to the medical staff. The presence of automatic sterilization programs in the autoclave is very convenient for work. At present, it is of particular importance to record the correct operation of the autoclave. If the autoclave model you have chosen does not have a built-in printer, then it is desirable that an outlet for a standard printer connector and the possibility of a subsequent (later) purchase of the printer be provided.
Distilled water is used to operate the autoclaves (to avoid corrosion from chlorine contained in ordinary water). Autoclaves with water heating outside the loading chamber are more economical in terms of the consumption of distilled water.
Typically, an autoclave has 3 working programs:
