Knowing how to use an ETO Sterilizer is crucial if you work in the medical industry. It can stop the transmission of viruses, fungi, and bacteria that can infect patients and kill them. It’s a crucial piece of technology in hospitals as well.

The medical device industry has steadily increased the use of ethylene oxide (ETO) as a sterilizing gas during the past few decades. Nearly half of all medical devices in the US are processed with ETO.

When employed as a sterilizing gas, ETO binds to bacteria’ DNA and renders them inactive. ETO is used in hospitals to sterilize heat-sensitive medical instruments since it is a potent disinfectant and microbial inactivator. ETO serves as a disinfectant and a sterilizer for medical equipment that is sensitive to moisture.

Monitoring temperature and relative humidity are just two of the control techniques needed during the sterilization process. One of the most crucial components of the system is a moisture sensor as well. The moisture sensor is pretty simple to install, but upkeep is a hassle.

Keeping an eye on the pressure inside the product’s container is another crucial control step. The user is able to watch how the pressure increases during sterilant dwell thanks to this. It can also be utilized to figure out how EtO gets within the items.

Humidity is a key factor to take into account while validating an ETO sterilizer. One of the system’s most crucial components—and one of the trickiest to get right—is the humidity sensor.

There are many different kinds of sensors. The mechanical hygrometer is the most fundamental. This uses materials including wood, paper, and plant leaves and is based on the idea of material expansion.

The most challenging sensor to install and maintain is the humidity sensor. Additionally, a lot of calibrating is needed. ETO chambers have electronic sensors that measure humidity.

32% relative humidity is ideal. The pressure increase following steam injection is used to calculate the relative humidity of a chamber. This can also be determined using a steam table.

The ETO Sterilizer can benefit from a humidity sensor in a number of ways. The capability to record the humidity of the product load in the chamber is one of the most crucial.

Medical equipment can be cleaned and sterilized using the EO (Ethylene Oxide) process. When adopting this procedure, there are a few significant factors to take into account.

Product type, material, packaging, and gas concentration are just a few of the variables that affect the amount of time an EO must be exposed to. Use the calculation below to calculate the shortest EO exposure time.

In order to calculate the equation, a sterilizing procedure’ gas injection phase’s time to reach a particular degree of lethality is divided. It accounts for the lethality attained throughout the cycle’s exposure phase as well as the amount of time needed for nitrogen to be applied to the product.

The amount of time needed to reach a steady-state concentration of ETO inside the process chamber should also be taken into account. By examining the pressure difference in the chamber throughout the various stages of the sterilization cycle, this can be ascertained. ETO concentration ought to drop proportionately to a decrease in pressure differential.

The high efficacy of using ethylene oxide (EO) to disinfect medical equipment is well established. The sterilization of medical devices with ethylene oxide is governed by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA collaborates with other governmental organizations to create cutting-edge sterilization techniques. The FDA estimates that ETO sterilization occurs on around 50% of medical devices in the US each year.