Part 3

While steam sterilizers are wonderful engineering masterpieces, they are not a magic box. For a steam cycle to be effective – meaning it achieves a sterility assurance level (SAL) of 10^-6 – the process must result in a one in one million chance that a device will be non-sterile after reprocessing.

The SAL is a theoretical value, and is based on the assumption that all steps in the reprocessing procedure are performed correctly and with appropriate equipment, such as appropriate precleaning, as well as manual and automatic cleaning. In practice, there may be variations in the actual sterilization process that can affect the SAL and it is important to verify the real-life performance of the equipment and process. To say this another way, steam sterilization is only as effective as the steps that occur before you place an instrument inside the chamber.

This being said, the basic concepts of time, temperature, and pressure are key factors of success in every sterilization cycle. This means that it is critical when users are preparing sterilization loads to ensure that each team member understands the differences between each pre-programmed cycle, where they overlap, and when they should be used for certain inventory.