Quality
Sterilisation of Plastics
Medical devices and kits can contain many plastics, each of which responds differently to sterilisation.
One of the greatest difficulties in sterilising medical devices is the range of plastics used in a device or kit. Even a simple product may contain up to ten plastics used for housings, tubing, connectors, valves, and seals.
Materials may be chosen for transparency, mechanical strength, inertness, or other application requirements. Each plastic responds differently to the available sterilisation methods.
Sterilisation methods should therefore be considered early in the material-selection process for every medical device that uses plastics.