A PRACTICAL TECHNIQUE FOR DISINFECTING ELECTRICAL-STIMULATION APPARATUSES USED IN WOUND TREATMENT

Background and Purpose. Electrical stimulation (ES) is used in wound m anagement. Concerns, however, have been raised about the possible role ES might play in promoting or exacerbating wound infections, especial ly bacterial infections. The purpose of this study was to address thes e concerns by evaluating the efficacy of a method for disinfecting ES electrodes used in would treatment. Methods. Samples were taken from e ach wound treated in this study prior to and after ES and from sponges used with the ES electrodes prior to treatment, after treatment, and after 20 minutes of chemical disinfection. The presence and types of b acteria recovered were determined through standard microbiological tec hniques. Results. In this study of 25 patient samples, large numbers ( ie, thousands) of bacteria were recovered from the pretreatment and po sttreatment wound samples and from the posttreatment sponges. Followin g disinfection, however, bacteria were absent from the sponges in 23 o f the 25 patient samples. In the remaining 2 samples, no more than two bacterial colonies were recovered after disinfection. Conclusion and Discussion. Immersion of the electrodes and sponges for 20 minutes in the disinfectant resulted in reduction of bacteria to safe, noninfecti ve levels. Disinfection either completely eliminated all bacteria from the sponges (in 92% of the samples) or eliminated nearly all bacteria (in the remaining 8% of the samples), compared with predisinfection s amples, which contained very large numbers of bacteria. These results demonstrate that the disinfection method used in this study is efficac ious, and it appears to be cost-effective, practical, and safe for cli nical use.