The power of pre-treatment formulations

There is widespread concern about the potential for transfer of prion protein between surgical patients because of incomplete instrument decontamination and the resistance of prion to inactivation by steam sterilisation. HTM 01-01 (UK Department of Health, 2016) states that all surgical instruments should be decontaminated to a level where less than 5µg of residual protein is detectable per instrument side using a fluorescence-based in-situ protein detection method.

The use of pre-treatment formulations is recommended to increase protein removal during reprocessing. These formulations are applied to soiled instruments as soon as possible after use, preventing soil drying on instrument surfaces before the cleaning process. A study was carried out with the objective to measure the effectiveness of five commercially available pre-treatment formulations used for this purpose.