Disinfection of the touchscreen of anesthesia machine: The effectiveness of Antimic®

Objective: All devices in operating rooms are well known that they could be sources of infection. Nevertheless there are not enough studies about disinfection of new generation anesthesia machines with touchscreen and their risk of infection.The aim of this clinical study is to determine the contamination of the touchscreen (Infinity C500) of anesthesia machine (Dräger Zeus IE) in a prospective manner and to investigate the effect of water based disinfectant, Antimic®.Material and Methods: We have studied on 8 anesthesia machines with touchscreen. Hospital (Group H) (n=8) and Antimic® group (Group A) (n=8) were designed. Anesthesiologists have not been informed about the disinfection procedures and groups.Touchscreen of anesthesia machines in our hospital are cleaned only with wet cloth. There for, in hospital group (Group H), touchscreens were cleaned with wet cloth at 07:00 am and left to dry for 15 minutes. Subsequently, swabs were taken from the touchscreen. Then during 10 days, touchscreens were cleaned with wet cloth at 07:00 every morning and anytime if there has been visible blood transmission.We waited for 1 week after 32 swabs were taken in Group H. Next week, second group was studied on the same anesthesia machines. For disinfection in the second group (Group A), a cloth damped with Antimic® was used and the touchscreens were left to dry for 15 minutes. Following this procedure, swabs were taken. Then during 10 days, touchscreens were cleaned with wet cloth anytime when there has been visible blood transmission. No disinfection was applied anymore.For each group, 32 swabs were taken; in the first day before the operations and then 1st, 5th, and 10th days at 05:00 pm. Swabs were cultured and processed by a microbiologist who was not aware of the group which the sample belonged to. The results were loaded to SPSS 15.0 program. For statistical analysis, Pearson Chi-Square, Mann- Whitney U, Fisher?s Exact, Wilcoxon tests were used. p<0.05 was taken as significant.Results: Bacterial growth in Group A (n = 33, 32.35%), was significantly less than Group H (n = 69, 67.65%) (p=0.001). Coagulase negative staphylococcus was the most identified microorganism in both groups (Group H: 31, Group A: 18). Antimic® was effective on decreasing number of bacterial growth; CNS, Diphteroids, and Bacillus spp.Conclusions: Even though cleaning touchscreens with water-based disinfectant like Antimic®, reduces bacterial contamination, can not totally eliminate the risk of infection; so multidisciplinary studies and further researches are needed.