Soluble Peracid Powders for Medical Device Disinfection

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The highly specialized uses for endoscopes and their high capital expense preclude most facilities from owning very many of them. Therefore, it is necessary to rapidly clean and disinfect endoscopes so they can be reused. This rapid turn-around of endoscopes places a high premium on expeditious cleaning and disinfection methods. The most popular method of disinfecting endoscopes is to immerse them in a commercially available liquid chemical germicide that contains dilute concentrations of either glutaraldehyde or peracetic acid. However, glutaraldehyde is toxic and disinfection cycles that use glutaraldehyde require are too long. Peracetic acid-based germicides disinfect much faster but because of their poor stability in dilute solutions, these germicides are stored as hazardous concentrated liquids. This revised Phase I proposal describes the evaluation of a novel family of peroxygen compounds and their capability to disinfect endoscopes. These compounds can be synthesized and isolated as solid, concentrated powders with an extended shelf-life. The powders are soluble in water so that large quantities of liquid disinfectant can be safely and easily prepared, when desired. These peroxygen compounds provide the desirable properties of peracetic acid with the safe and convenient properties of a concentrated powder. Key Words: Endoscope, sterilization, peracids, spores, disinfection, cold sterilants, peroxygen compounds, liquid chemical germicides. Commercial Applications: The commercial applications for this technology are considerable. The solid peroxygen compounds will be preferred over the hazardous concentrated solutions currently used in the industry. The one-step synthesis of these compounds from inexpensive starting materials is straightforward. The proposed technology will be first introduced into the endoscope reprocessing industry and will be followed by the introduction into other high-level disinfection markets.