EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance C2000 Incubator contamination

Hi,
Has anybody had any bio contamination problems with any of the various flavours of these types of incubators? (Airs-Shields was Vickers then Hill-Rom and now Draeger.)
Answer to the forum or to patrick.carena@nhs.net
Regards
Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Throughout my years of experience as a Biomedical Engineering Manager, we have had no such contamination problem. I am pretty sure your NICU department has a decontamination policy on hand in which the follow. It could be this policy is not followed accordingly as there is a frequency in replacing the incubator for the same baby every 7 days. Incubators go through a thorough decontamination once off the NICU Ward and filters must be cleaned and replaced often. In addition, the water reservoir must be decontaminated as well.

Good Luck

I notice that no-one else has yet responded on here to Patrick's post.

May I dare to suggest that could be because he has not made clear what the nature of this "bio contamination" is, and why it should be specific (only?) to the incubators mentioned!

Obviously, neonatal incubators should be thoroughly cleaned (ideally between patients) by the staff involved. What's the problem (I wonder)?

I think you may be looking into this a little too deep there Geoff. All incubators irrespective of make are subjected to the same contaminants over their lifetime. However, as we know from bitter experience some are considerably harder to clean than others due to design cosiderations, catches and construction methods adopted. Many times I have had to assist the staff with my trusted screwdriver to stripdown various parts so they can be decontaminated satisfactorily.

Now this raises an important question..... this only happens with visible contamination, so what about the contamination that cannot be seen lurking in parts of the incubator invisible to the naked eye?

Maybe Patrick is thinking about ease of stripping them down, then. Not to mention re-assembling!

On the second point ... what was that bit of kit called ... the Dräger Aseptor? That is, a big sealed stainless steel box in which gases were passed through incubators etc. Formaldehyde, if I remember rightly.

Wow - I did not know Draeger had this product - but then I guess using Formalin, the product is a huge health and safety risk....

Thanks for the info. Geoff.

We never did recommend or use Formalin or any sort of chemicals which are considered of high safety risks.

Stripping down the unit to a certain limit can be performed once a year. We have used pre-sept tablets (Bleach Tablets), one tablet per 1 to 2 liters of water depending on the severity of the case. Rinsing with sterile water using steril wash clothes.

From time to time, we add a mix of viniger & water to the reservoir and run the Incubator for few hours to remove any builds up of calcifications.

Hope that helps

Regards to all

Indeed. There's not a whole lot wrong with using common or garden domestic cleaning products, in my opinion. It's cheaper that way too. Just as long as care is taken in their use, and diluting them when necessary. Here are a few well known* products.

* Other off-the-shelf cleaning products are available!