The obvious alternative to using a hot bead steriliser is to have a separate set of sterilised instruments for each animal вЂ“ and of course a clean sterile drape. My first reaction to this rumour was вЂњgood, but what are they suggesting as an alternative, and will they also make mandatory some of the more important recommendations in their last guidance note?вЂќ However, since it is only the instrument tips that are sterilised there are concerns that this compromises measures taken to keep to an absolute minimum the risk of infection of the surgical wound. This is useful when undertaking surgery on several rodents in succession, so called вЂbatch surgeryвЂ™, to allow decontamination of the instrument tips between successive animals. For those of you unfamiliar with this device, it is designed to sterilise the tips of surgical instruments by rapidly heating them to over 200 oC.

Paul is a world renowned laboratory animal veterinarian who specialises in anaesthesia and analgesia.ДЄ rumour circulated recently amongst UK lab animal veterinarians that the Home Office Inspectorate (the UK regulator for animal procedures) intended to ban the use of hot bead sterilisers.

Surgical asepsis