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Care and Maintenance Tips for Surgical Instruments
Having manufactured surgical instruments for more than 140 years, it's clear that we know instruments. Since our founding in 1867, Aesculap has been providing surgical technical services for medical facilities throughout the world. Aesculap Technical Services (ATS) was born from the desire to provide customers with comprehensive service offerings to support their capital investments. ATS provides medical facilities with a complete portfolio of preventative maintenance programs and repair services for surgical instruments and sterilization containers, including instruments and devices produced by other manufacturers.
Before function check
All instruments (new or repaired) should be removed from original packaging and processed before being returned to a tray or stored to use later. For new instruments this builds up the passivation layer to prevent corrosion.
Visual check on cleanliness ie. free from blood, organic and protein residues as well as other contamination. It is advisable to work with lights and magnifying glass.
If there are any residues, another manual reprocessing is necessary.
Assemble the instruments prior to the function check.
Maintenance / lubrication needs to be undertaken before function testing.
During function check
Function tests are to be carried out carefully. The instruments which no longer comply with their intended use, e.g. by damage or abrasion, are eliminated accordingly.
Check in particular serrations, joints, all lumina and tube shafts for consistency.
Instruments with moving parts must be lubricated with suitable maintenance oil to prolong life.
Lubricate with Sterilit® oil spray all jointed instruments to prevent friction corosion. Open and close instruments several times, this will ensure that the lubrication will be placed correctly before sterilisation.
During the cleaning process, it is recommended to use chemicals which have been tested and approved by chemical manufacturer and meet standard guidelines.
Avoid contact with chlorides. Saline near instruments causes corrosion.
After function check
After reprocessing, please cool down the instruments to room temperature. Otherwise there is a risk of material abrasion.
Damaged instruments need to be removed and returned back to the manufacturer for repair.
If in doubt, contact manufacturer for suitable test methods.
