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VOLUME 15 , ISSUE 4 ( July-August, 2023 ) > List of Articles

REVIEW ARTICLE

How Accurate Are We When It Comes to the Reprocessing and Reuse of Gynecological Equipment?

Smit B Solanki, Nita Mishra, Arminder Singh Dhiman

Keywords : Disinfection, Gynecology devices, Sterilizing

Citation Information : Solanki SB, Mishra N, Dhiman AS. How Accurate Are We When It Comes to the Reprocessing and Reuse of Gynecological Equipment?. J South Asian Feder Obs Gynae 2023; 15 (4):480-485.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10006-2272

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 16-09-2023

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2023; The Author(s).


Abstract

Despite high per capita income and strong health insurance coverage, healthcare is expensive for a sizable section of the population. Reprocessing of devices began in the late 1970s in an effort to lower procedure costs. Reprocessing involves a number of steps, including appropriate cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization techniques. Reprocessing has the potential to compromise patient safety due to cross-contamination following insufficient sterilization because it is intended to save costs. During the sterilization/disinfection processes, there is also a chance that the reconditioned equipment would work differently. Therefore, it is necessary to provide appropriate criteria to choose reprocessing procedures for diverse gynecological equipment. Additionally, it is important to talk about and resolve the issues that gynecologists confront. In September 2022, a PubMed search was conducted using several search terms, including “recycling of medical devices”, “Single Usage Devices”, “methods of reprocessing of equipment in medical practice”, “use of formalin chamber”, “gynecological disposable disinfection”, etc. All English articles were checked by title and abstract after duplicates were eliminated. After obtaining the whole contents of a few articles, we checked them against other connected articles to see if there were any. The articles were all examined. A product can be reused if it can be cheaply treated again using methods that have been proven effective while maintaining its functionality. After one use, it does not need to be thrown away. This procedure helps to limit the cost of a gynecological case and lessens the financial load. Food and Drug Administration regulations now in effect are rigorous. In medical practice, the contamination that is used to assess the sterilizing procedure is never truly present. New regulations that take the clinical research scenario into account are therefore preferred.


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