Abstract

JARAMILLQ-RUIZ, Natalia; ARAQUE-MARIN, Pedronel  and  MQNTQYA-GOEZ, Yesid. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF LETHALITY AGAINST BACILLUS ATROPHAEUS IN STERILIZATION PROCESSES OF MEDICAL DEVICES WITH ETHYLENE OXIDE. Rev.EIA.Esc.Ing.Antioq [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.28, pp.45-55. ISSN 1794-1237.  https://doi.org/10.24050/reia.v14i28.974.

Sterilization of medical devices with ethylene oxide aims to eliminate all forms of life that may have contact with body tissues, destroying microbial contamination that could lead to disease transmission. Ethylene oxide sterilization is performed at low temperatures and it's applied to medical devices that cannot be steam sterilized. Besides being an expensive process, Ethylene oxide sterilization has some disadvantages when implemented with prolonged time cycles, becoming a risk factor for patients and medical staff. This study proposes a mathematical model to measure and predict the lethal rate in the process of ethylene oxide sterilization of medical devices based on its concentration, relative humidity, pressure, working temperature and exposure time of the device to the ethylene oxide. The proposed mathematical model describes a first-order kinetic behavior, for a number of spores of Bacillus arthophaeus of 3.5x106, a concentration of ethylene oxide of 700 ppm, an ambient temperature of 23°C, a working temperature of 60 °C, a relative humidity of 60 % and a pressure 0.490atm.

Keywords : mathematical model; sterilization; ethylene oxide; lethal rate; Bacillus arthophaeus; medical device.

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