PLASMA STERILIZATION OF SELECTED OPHTHALMIC INSTRUMENTS FOR COMBINED INTRAOCULAR SURGERY

Plasma sterilization is a nontoxic fast procedure for thermolabile and thermostable microsurgical instruments. We report data on the microbi cidal effectiveness for daily routine surgical instruments like steel scissors, trephination devices, microstripper and Vitro-Cat as well as irrigation/aspiration instruments. When these instruments were cleane d from blood and saline, and when H2O2 intensifiers (adapters) were ap plied where necessary plasma sterilization proved to be a microbiologi cally safe procedure with legally adequate reduction factors of >6 log .