BEYOND THE NAKED EYE – ISSUE NO. 222

We recently had a story about the Ford Motor Company utilizing a high tech array of cameras lights and computers to create 3-D images of surface contaminants on their F-Series trucks prior to painting. Surface contaminants and imperfections can be disastrous to the final finish on an automobile. Having a system to look beyond what is observable by the unaided eye is key to Ford delivering superior products to their customers. When it comes to cleaning of surgical instruments, we do not have equipment as high tech as that. But we do have some fabulously simple tools to aid our visual inspection of surgical instruments. This includes reagent tests, like our HemoCheck, ProCheck and others to test for residual organic soils remaining on improperly cleaned instruments. We also have optical inspection tools, including lighted magnifying glasses, and usb microscopes, to better view and even photograph and document residual contamination and imperfections (such as micro fractures) in surgical instruments. Not 3-D. Not yet. But these are very powerful tools to improve the cleaning process and deliver superiorly safe instruments to patient care.