STERRAD™ Superiority Volume 2:<br />Defining Chamber Capacity

The capacity of medical sterilizers has a direct impact on the speed and efficiency of surgical instrument reprocessing. Due to the smaller volume and diversity of surgical instruments requiring low-temperature sterilization,^{1, 2} sterilizers with large chambers do not always improve reprocessing capacity and can instead create a trade-off between fast turnaround times and efficient use of sterilant and natural resources.²

A balance is therefore needed between both speed and efficiency and the usable capacity of a sterilization system,² which is influenced by two main factors:

The claims requirements of a sterilizer determine the type and number of instruments that can be reprocessed in one cycle, and thus the usable capacity of the system. They therefore have the potential to limit load capacity, regardless of whether the physical chamber is actually filled, creating a need for running partially full cycles.²

The STERRAD™ 100NX with ALLClear™ Technology supports a higher number of lumens per load than other sterilizers of an equivalent size, such as the STERIS V-PRO® maX system^{,3, 4} and may help to improve efficiency and turnaround times by reducing the likelihood of partially full cycles.

The number and types of tray each chamber can process also determines the usable capacity of sterilizers, and is dependent on the configuration of chamber dimensions as well as the chamber volume.²

The STERRAD™ 100NX is wider than other sterilization systems of the same volume,^{3, 5} minimising the risk of trays touching each other, which in turn promotes optimal hydrogen peroxide circulation and facilitates effective sterilization.²

Through facilitating efficient and effective sterilization, STERRAD™ Systems can play a critical role in ensuring medical and surgical instruments are reprocessed correctly, thereby potentially reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections and ensuring patient safety.^{1, 6}