Minimally invasive surgical and diagnostic procedures are being performed with increasing frequency. It is an important trend in medicine, and currently, over 50% of all general surgical procedures are performed using these techniques. Most of the instruments required for these procedures are used several times daily; therefore, a pressing need exists for rapid, safe, and cost-effective disinfection and sterilization of these sensitive medical instruments between uses. Lynntech proposes to develop a unique vapor phase hydrogen peroxide method offering sterilization and sterile packing performed in a single unit operation. The sterilized device/instruments will be automatically vacuum packed immediately following the sterilization cycle, thus preventing direct human contact and chances of recontamination during transport. The vapor phase sterilization system will be designed to integrate into any medical or dental environment without the need for facility renovations. The final envisaged system will be completely automated to monitor and control all process parameters during each sterilization cycle, thus allowing ease of use and eliminating the likelihood for operator error. The capital cost will be minimal, as there is no need for specialized hardware, such as a waste handling system, and all of the individual components including the vacuum system are readily available. The combination of these factors will contribute to a cost effective, low maintenance, easy to use sterilization system.
