Understanding Why Packaging Materials Must Be Sterilized

by | Mar 15, 2017 | Sterilization

We all expect medical devices and instruments to be perfectly sterilized, but that would lose all the effect if the packaging were not also sterilized. Packaging sterilization services form an essential role in society and encourage our well-being. The sterilization process can be completed at the source, in the medical facility or by one of the larger professional contract sterilization organizations, who specialize, in managing the process from the equipment to the packaging.

Packaging Materials and Coatings Affect the Instruments

Contract sterilization companies have built a superb knowledge base after years of experience, knowing which materials and coatings work best with all types of devices and instruments.

Proper packaging sterilization services also understand how the design of the packaging can also affect the devices or instruments inside, with the aim of ensuring that all impurities and microorganisms have been removed.

Ethylene oxide (EtO) is the most common sterilization service provided but is not perfect in all sets of circumstances, which is why contract sterilization companies can provide a wide variety of options, depending upon the specific requirements of the medical or healthcare community.

Sealing of The Packaging

Once the sterilization process has been completed and the medical instruments placed inside the packaging, some processes prefer a Tyvek patch or strip to complete the process. Where foils are used, the sterilization process requires different procedures to form a hermetic seal on the laminate barrier.

Where gamma radiation is used for sterilization and where the materials are porous, Tyvek is preferred to paper because of its strength and often cannot be re-sterilized time after time.

By reducing the amount of air around the medical device or instrument, E-beam sterilization becomes an acceptable option particularly as this method has fewer effects in comparison to x-ray and gamma sterilization.

Packaging can be distorted when steam sterilization is used as the best method for processing, and this would be another reason for using Tyvek packaging because it will not distort like vinyl.

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