Antisepsis, Disinfection and Sterilization
Concurrent Education Session - 60 minutes
Karen Vickery, BVSc, MVSc, PhD, MASM
Scientific Director Surgical Infection Research Group
Macquarie University
Sydney, New South Wales
Whiteley Corporation : Other Research Support, Receive any other type of financial or material support that could present a potential conflict of interest., Research Grant
The presence of biofilm containing MDROs has been confirmed contaminating 70–100% of dry hospital surfaces in Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Australia. Biofilms in endoscopes have been responsible for many of the outbreaks associated with carbapenem resistant organisms and biofilms have been identified on surgical instruments subjected to heat sterilization.
Participants will learn about the types of surfaces contaminated and the number of bacteria present in biofilms. They will gain an understanding of the nature of biofilms and how they differ from planktonic organisms. This session will help participants appreciate how this difference leads to the reduced efficacy of biocides against biofilm and the impact on IPC; biocide efficiency testing will also be discussed.
The dangers of biofilms and planktonic bacteria will be discussed, and participants will learn more about the current cleaning and disinfecting agents that are highly effective against planktonic bacteria. Registration of hospital grade disinfectants requires testing against planktonic organisms in solution and most disinfectants can hurdle this low bar. Even for instrument grade disinfectants, pre-registration testing only requires minimal testing against traditional hydrated biofilm.